The Rec Room Chronicals
by Naton Xepol
Summary: Take a journey with your far from average game geeks as their world is turned upside down and their favorite games begin to take on a real twist of their own.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Satellite

Nothing. There was nothing to see. No planets, no atmosphere, no sky, just a black hole in nothing speckled with tiny lights that were to far away to matter. He sighed and saw his breath gather on the thick double plated plastic window. Greg looked past his reflection in the window knowing that he was the only person on this block. This wasn't like the satellite station around earth. Not at all.

At least, he thought to himself, I could see the green forests and jungles and the deep blue oceans. Out here there's absolutely nothing. He sighed again and drew a smiley face in the condensation before turning away. He shouldered his weapon again and began to walk his rounds though the space station. As he turned the corner like he did so many times before he thought to himself, why do I even do this? Nothing is ever going to happen here. He passed the research labs and vanished from view around the corner. The corridor was now empty, dark, and cold. In the dark a small and unknown service panel hissed as it slowly opened. A man in a white coat slowly and clumsily stumbled out and cursed himself as well as the air locks. He peered into the darkness hoping he didn't arouse suspicion. He slid the service panel back into place and snuck down the hallway. He turned the corner and nearly fell trying to retreat as the security guard rounded the corner towards him. He pressed his body against the wall and hoped the guard wouldn't find him. He listened to the footsteps as they inched closer and closer. Then there was silence. The guard's shadow was dim but visible in the low light but the weapon's silhouette drove a cold chill down his spine. The weapon clicked loudly as the clip ejected and the click following the loading of a fresh magazine into the rifle almost made him sick to the point of nausea.

"Sector sixty seven patrol to Grid three dispatch. Come in dispatch." The guard said over his radio. The man in the lab coat cursed himself for being so stupid and getting caught so easily. He took a slow breath to calm himself down as he prepared to face the guard. He reached into his lab coat and slowly removed a small silenced pistol.

"Grid three dispatch to Sector sixty seven patrol," The radio crackled back, "Go ahead patrol." Greg slung his weapon over his shoulder muttering to himself. "Finally," he said. "Sector Sixty seven patrol reporting a weapon malfunction. I have a jammed cartridge in my weapon and need it cleared so I can get back to patrol."

"What's the matter, Greg? Forget how to load your weapon in you old age." The dispatcher said. The man in the lab coat sighed heavily and quickly stashed the pistol away in his coat.

"Bite me, Allen. Just open the server and let me fix this so I can get done with this patrol." Greg said. He smirked a little to himself a panel on the floor rose up like a podium. The octagonal tile before the podium glowed a soft green and awaited Greg. He stepped on the pressure sensor tile and the podium's tile top opened like a briefcase, exposing tools and a small platform for Greg's weapon to rest while he fixed it.

"Why in such a hurry, Greg?" Allen the dispatcher radioed back, "You got a date or something?"

"Yeah," he said taking his weapon apart and removing the jammed bullet. "My foot has a date with your ass!"

"Yeah right. I saw your training records. You even lifting your foot above your knee would be a miracle." Allen laughed. Greg shook his head and reassembled his rifle. He stepped off the glowing tile and the podium sank back down into the tiled corridor. He slid back the bolt and clicked on his microphone, "Sector sixty seven patrol to dispatch," Greg said.

"This is Grid three dispatch." Allen said resuming his professional attitude, "Go ahead sector sixty seven patrol."

"Weapon repaired," he said, "Resuming patrol" Greg said walking back down the lonely corridor. "Grid three dispatch copy, Patrol Resumed" Allen said.

Once again the guard slowly walked down the corridor and disappeared. The man in the lab coat slowly turned around the corner he was hiding behind and crept into the hallway. Finally, the last obstacle, he thought to himself as he eyed the solid steel sliding door. He pressed a tile on the wall and it glowed softly. The panel receded and revealed its hidden keypad and fingerprint access pad. The lab coat man slipped his hand into his coat pocket and took a thin rubber glove and gingerly slipped it over his hand. He entered a key code into the digital display and waited.

…Bypass Code Detected. Security cycling disabled…

He held his breath and watched the monitor relay more information.

…Security hazard detected. Alerting central control…

His stomach began to twist into sickening knots as panic slowly crept up into his throat.

…Central Control offline. Security protocol Compromised…

He could feel the bile building. Bubbling to his mouth and he began to dry heave when relief flashed across the screen.

…Begin Maintenance.

He stopped heaving and breathed a sigh of relief as the maintenance code was accepted. The security was down now, temporarily for repair, but they were off. Central command would have no idea that the security was down and this would just be another repair check in the daily logs. The steel door clicked, hissed and then slowly creaked open. His eyes darted around the room. From each corner and from every point he could think of that there might be a camera watching him, waiting to blare their sirens and signal the guard teams to arrest or even kill him. He saw a camera staring right at his face and froze.

Have I been caught already? He thought to himself. He almost grinned to himself when the tiny power light showed no signs of life at all. The camera, like the security and the guard, was already dealt with. He began his mission and rushed from lab table to lab table in the small octagonal room. The dim lights were a problem and he jumped as the door sealed itself and the desk lights flicked to life. Though bright they did little to illuminate the darkness he searched.

He began to curse under his breath as he frantically turned pile after pile of papers over until he found it. Hidden beneath a half eaten ham sandwich and a daily log clipboard was a small recess with a clear plastic cover.

"Just like they told me!" he said with a giddy but quiet excitement, "At the directors desk, recessed into the table top itself under a clear cover." He recited. He opened the plastic cover and pressed a small soft plastic button. It clicked quietly and behind him machinery began to hum and clack with the surge of high voltage power coursing through circuitry. The small glass domes lit up around the central pillar like ritual fires around a central obelisk of some long lost culture.

"Finally," he said, "I can complete my noble work." He slowly walked around the tower, looking intently at the contents of each lighted dome. Floating in seemingly empty space was a tiny pinky sized crystal. He marveled at the electronic artificial field generators he had helped to create and moved on, searching for his target. He chuckled to himself and his situation for a moment in the realization of all that was. On the space station that he and four thousand other people called home was an entire floor with at least two hundred guards at all times circling one section. One room really, and all their labor were to guard some simple, tiny crystals. But, he thought as he searched the obelisk, there was only one he was after.

He rounded the last of the eight sides and found the central dome. It looked like the others but with its subtle differences like its shatter proof glass, tamper proof control panel and independent control and security systems but he knew what to do. He reached into his coat pocket and removed a small silver case. He smiled as he opened it and removed a small silver ring and stretched it over the top of the dome and eyed it until it sat tightly just above the crystal inside the dome. He then took the other ring and closed the case, locking the ring into position on top and placed the ring on the desk of the department director.

The ring began to glow slightly as he activated the device. A bluish glow began to form it's into a ring of its own around the inside of the silver ring until the eye grew smaller and smaller until it vanished, leaving behind a smooth glassy plane of energy. The lab coat man looked to the silver ring around the dome and saw the other ring form the bluish mirror and took a breath before he pressed his fingers into the glassy surface of the energy plane.

The coat he wore was for good reason and not just to blend in. He had lived most of his life in deep space and spent most of his time on theories concerning space and time. His labors were more fruitful than he expected as he reached though and saw his own hand press though the surface of the other mirror. With his hand through the dome with no risk of security breaching he carefully wrapped his hands around the palm length shard of crystal and pulled his had back. He marveled at the crystal in his hands for a moment before closing his life's work.

A wonderful payoff, he thought to himself as he closed down the worm hole and retrieved the portal rings, carefully stowing them in their case and into his pocket. He shut down the obelisk and powered down the lights as he made his way out of the research room. He walked with a sense of accomplishment and invincibility now. After all he had just snuck thought the most highly guarded area of the ship and was on his way to complete his mission. As he headed down the hall, dodging cameras as he went, he hummed lightly to himself. There were no more security guards, no more panicking, just himself alone with a clear path though.

He walked to the elevator doors or freedom as he saw it, and pressed the up button. The doors remained quiet but he could hear the humming of the engines as the cables were reeled in.

One more task and I am finished with this joke of a research station. No more cramped offices, no more forced labor, and no more hatred of my own work. He smiled at his thoughts and regained his focus as the elevator bell rang and slowly opened.

"Hi Greg!" he said with undue enthusiasm as the security guard and himself traded places.

"Hey, Steve" Greg returned. The doors began to close as they both realized something was wrong. Greg spun around and aimed his weapon into the closing elevator and squeezed the trigger.

Allen leaned back in his cheap office chair and sipped his water. He watched the monitors in front of him and sighed. Nothing was going on anywhere in the space station. The technicians had long since retired, patrols were out and about, and they were about to end their shift. Why is time so goddamn slow when the clock is almost up? Allen wondered to himself. He raised his paper cup of water and watched the steam slowly rise up. He smiled at the steam and wondered if life would be easier if he had just stayed on earth as a cop, drinking cups of hot coffee instead of just hot water.

"Why the hell do you drink that?" Allen turned around and smiled at the disgusted face of his only co-worker on the so called 'night' watch. Marcos winced in disgust again as Allen sipped at his hot water again before answering, "They won't let us have caffeine and that means no coffee. This is as close to it as I can get."

"Yeah but you're just a packet away from hot chocolate or something, man." Marcos said, "Anything but hot fucking water, man."

"Does it bother you?" Allen said taking a brave but painful gulp. Marcos waved away the conversation and said, "Dude, just stop before I puke, man. That's just disgusting."

"Maybe but I like it.""Why?" Marcos asked, "What could have possibly lead you to drink hot fucking water instead of hot tea or chocolate like a fucking normal person?"

"Easy," he said, "I don't like tea and I'm a diabetic. So that means no sugar. And since black coffee is out of the question all I have left is…" He paused for a moment to take another drink, "…Hot water."

Marcos shook his head and gave up. "You're fucking weird, man." Allen smirked again and looked to his monitors. Same boring pictures of empty hallways and the gunfight at the elevator doors, Allen thought. He choked for a moment and sprayed water into the air.

"SON OF A BITCH! Call in a condition red! Alert all units on that floor!" Allen said. Marcos automatically began to alert the other patrols and sending notifications to the shift officers.

"Where and what?" Marcos asked.

"Elevator entrance in sector sixty seven. Shots fired!"

"Goddamn it!" Steve yelled clutching his shoulder. The doors finally closed but the metal dented heavily as the bullets collided with the thin steel. He wondered how he could be dumb enough to say hello to a guard trained to kill anyone on that floor without clearance. His arm hurt to much to hold his pistol any more and it clattered to the floor. Breathing deeply, trying to calm himself, he closed his eyes for a moment trying to work through the pain and trying to raise the courage to look at his shoulder. He threw up. The blood flowed freely from the hole the automatic rifle round left running though his arm. He bit down on his lab coat and tore it to shreds and patched up his wound as best he could.

"Goddamn it!" He shouted again. Cursing himself for his failure and stupidity he picked up his silenced pistol once more and tried to hold it in his hand. The wound was too severe for his hand to work and caused him almost too much pain to try and use his gun. He was certain to die if he couldn't use his hand to aim. He picked himself up and slid against the elevator walls until he faced the rear of the elevator with his back to the door. The smears of blood on the walls almost painted a picture of his failure. The splatter marks from the bullet that tore though his shoulder, the spot where he slammed into the wall following the shot and the trail he left sliding along to hide. He smirked a little at the pistol shells that lay in a puddle of blood that pooled on the metal floor. At least I got a few rounds off before he slugged me, he thought. The door dinged and he froze as the door slowly slid open. He checked his pistol and slipped out into the darkness of the hallway leaving a bloody trail. Red security lights emerged from hidden wall panels as he scraped his weakened body across the thick plastic windows to the escape pod chambers reminding him that the price of failure was death from the oncoming patrols.

"How far did that elevator go?" Allen barked. Marcos scrambled with the keys on his keyboard trying to locate the wounded scientist. "It went down three levels and its passenger disembarked. That puts him…Very close to the escape pods."

"Attention all security teams on sector Sixty Four! Unauthorized personnel in your area! Suspect may be heading for escape pods and is to be considered armed and dangerous. Apprehend suspect alive!"

"Cancel that order!" Allen spun his chair around only to be met with the dark green dress jacket of Science Director Nicoli Winston. His cold eyes pierced the darkness of their work stations. Nicoli Winston was a tall and imposing man of both Russian and English descent that seemed to fear nothing and was often pone to episodes of pure rage when his will was not carried though. His muscular physique and raw power often aided his tirades' around the ship and he was even reported to have thrown a trainee who showed too much attitude.

"I said, 'cancel that order' not, 'stare blankly at me,'"" Nicoli growled, "Now get to that damn radio." He said spinning Allen's chair around. "Tell them to terminate on sight."

"Yes, sir" Allen stammered, "All units, all units. Suspect is to be terminated on sight. I repeat, the suspect is to be terminated on sight."

"Sector Sixty Four patrol copy. Terminate on sight." The radio hissed back. Allen watched the monitors with the Director watching over his shoulder, "Allen, isn't it?"

"Yes sir," Allen said.

"I want you to bring up the controls for the emergency escape pods and lock them down. Not one is to leave without my authorization as long as passengers are on board." He said.

"Yes, sir." Allen punched away at his keyboard, opening servers and accessing the release parameters for the escape pods. He shifted the release command from all 'all access' so anyone can use the pods to 'command authorization' meaning that only those with proper clearance like the Science director or the Captain herself could release the pods.

"It's done, sir." Allen said. Nicoli watched as the runaway scientist jumped into the pod and after only a few moments emerged. He scrounged his pockets for what looked like a small hand held device and plugged it into the wall.

"What is he doing?" Nicoli asked. Allen squinted at the screen for a moment, "Marco," he said. "Yeah?"

"See if you can get a zoom on this guy here." Marcos typed away, finding the camera overlooking the pod bay area and took control of the camera and zoomed in closer to the scientist. "It looks like he's trying to trip the entire pod release system." Marcos said typing away, "He's trying to convince the computer that the ship is in immediate danger by lowering the readouts from the life support systems."

"He's trying to escape but why is he not in the pod?" Nicoli thought to himself for a moment and then turned away from the monitors and left the room.

"Where do you think he's going?" Marco asked.

"I don't know but wherever he's going," Allen said turning to his work station, "I wouldn't want to be there."

"You can't stop me!" Steve yelled. His shouts were followed by a hail of automatic fire into the pod bay. The tiny circular room normally served as a gathering place for people to escape the ship in emergency or for some a smoking lounge. But for Steve, the circular room served as a rounded fortress with only one way in and out. He glanced at the hand held computer and cursed at the security defenses as the download bar crept across slowly.

"You will never win!" He shouted again firing off a few more rounds. He ducked back into his hiding spot in the bay and ejected his clip. I couldn't have shot more than three rounds at that guard. And a few more right now at these patrolmen here. How many rounds do I have left? He wanted throw up again. His clip of at least twelve rounds was now as empty as the pods around him. The gunfire suddenly silenced and the hand held monitor finally sounded its alert. He smiled at the monitor as he read its message.

-Download complete-

Nicoli walked briskly down the hallway toward the gunfire that echoed through out the station floor. Patrolmen ran down the hallway past him, saluting as they raced passed. Nicoli returned the salutes he received though they would never see them. As an officer and commander he felt it necessary to provide and example to his men at all times. That meant returning unseen salutes and walking to a gunfight. An officer that ran, he thought, showed a lack of control and discipline. An officer should never run, he thought, makes his men think they can't be trusted to hold out until his arrival. He turned the rounded corner and found a squad of men pressed flat against the wall planning to enter the pod bay. Two other men on the opposite side fired into the room, keeping the assailant at bay.

"Who is the commanding officer here?" Nicoli asked. One man form the group nervously stepped forward. "Fulton," Nicoli said, "What's your first name, Fulton?"

"Greg, sir," He answered.

"What's the situation?" Nicoli asked surveying the scene.

"Well, sir," Greg began, "We've currently contained the suspect in the pod bay area. We also believe he may be trying to escape the station with stolen base property."

Nicoli eyed the patrol officer with an interest as he described the situation but also seemed to have a deeper understanding of it than even he did. "Why do you think he may have stolen property from the station?" "I found evidence of this in my own search, sir."

"Interesting," Nicoli smirked, "Tell me everything that has happened."

"Yes, sir," Greg said, "I was resuming my patrol circuit for the night and as directed I changed my patrol routine and apparently caught the suspect off guard. I fired at him in the elevator and wounded the suspect as he tried to return fire. He took the elevator down and the alert was sounded. I came back down my sector expecting the lower floor crews to capture him wherever the elevator stopped and examined the area to try and understand why he was here." "What if he was simply lost?" Nicoli said testing the officer's manner of thinking.

"I have known the suspect for a great deal of time and he knew this station better than I did, sir. I also know that he knew this area was strictly off limits to all except authorized personnel and there is only one research station on this floor sir. I thought he might be trying to get inside and I confirmed this when I found the door unlocked."

"Very good," Nicoli said. "Did you see what kind of weapon he had?"

"A small silenced pistol, sir." Greg said, "He's been using it against us for some time."

"He hasn't fired since I arrived." Nicoli said, "He must be out of ammunition. Take your men and take back the pod bay. He can't leave anyway."

Greg nodded and silently directed his men to move in. Nicoli followed closely behind the team as they rushed the entrance and immediately surrounded the suspect. Although he was between a wall and a firing squad, Steve still managed to smile.

"You think you've won?" Steve asked as he backed against the wall, hiding his hand held computer behind him. "The war has only begun." He pressed the confirm key on his computer and every pod launched off into space. He raised his weapon, aiming at Nicoli, and shouted, "You will never stop the holy mission of the Demon!"

"NO ONE FIRE!" Nicoli commanded. Steve pulled the trigger and as Nicoli expected nothing happened. The trigger was pulled, the hammer fell but nothing happened.

"Take him," Nicoli said. A patrol man walked up to the scientist and swiftly brought the end of his rifle to the side of Steve's head. As soon as he was on the floor he was handcuffed and dragged away.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Grand Distances

Director Winston watched his monitors in the darkness. They showed the security teams running around the station, arresting and interrogating suspects and talking to witnesses. The only monitor he was interested in was the interrogation of their only true suspect, a lab technician by the name of Steve Reverend. The files said that he was specialist in the realm of the new space-time field manipulation using high energy radiation and chief design engineer behind the development of the portable portal that was used to steal the whole of their research. He was a highly intelligent man and spent years developing research data for the military though he never actually joined with the armed services.

Winston toyed with the notion that had he actually joined the military he might have gotten away with his sabotage and his attempted escape as well. He watched the scientist collapse to the floor as the interrogators pummeled into cooperating with their investigation.

His face jerked in another flash of pain, and spots before Steve's eyes before he fell to the floor with the force of the last punch. At least this time I hit the floor, Steve thought, they won't punch me again until they right me. At least I get a moment of rest before they start again.

The man running his interrogation smiled and swiftly drove his size twelve steel toe boot into Steve's stomach. He watched and smiled a little as he lay there trying to cover himself while his hands were tied behind him. He kicked him again and again, pausing for only a moment to ask his only question so far.

"So?" He said, "Who are you working for?" Steve did nothing but cough on the floor. He kicked him again. "You know this hurts worse than what I could do with only my fist right?" He bent down close to Steve and whispered into his ear, "Just tell me what I want to know and I can go back to my room and sleep. Just pretending like this never happened and you can nurse your wounds back in your cell. Huh? You like that idea?" He straightened himself up and placed his boot under Steve's neck.

"I have to say I admire your spirit. You're my enemy now, this is true but that shouldn't mean that I don't respect you. I admire a man that will die for a cause." Then with a sharp yell he lifted his foot and straightened up Steve in his chair and finished with a swift kick to his jaw. Steve mumbled in pain but his interrogator only laughed.

"Don't worry my friend. Your jaw is not broken, just bruised. You will be fine." He took a chair from the corner of the tiny room and sat in front of Steve. "So you can't say you can't talk. Okay." He lit a cigarette and took a deep drag, "You are lucky that this is not in Russia my friend. I was recruited by the Americans you know. Did you know that? My papers say I am artist. Ha. I would love to think of myself as artist. They say this is art." He lifted Steve's head and asked, "What do you think?"

"That will be enough for today." The intercom spoke. It was Director Winston. "We know who you work for Steve. We know what you plan to do and why. You will be returned to your cell and then we will decide what to do with you later. Is that understood Petrova?"

"Yes, Director. Perfectly clear." The interrogator said. He turned to Steve and smiled. "At least your journey of pain is at an end." He took off the restraints on Steve's chair and escorted the prisoner to his cell.

Nicoli sat back and watched them leave the cell and switched the monitor to scan the station. He rubbed his eyes and face trying to stay awake. He watched the scanning display of the ships tracking the portal's exit. As the prisoner was being detained the ship's crews had captured the ring and found it was rigged to be destroyed after its use on the escape pods. Luckily, the explosives used were only suitable for oxygenated environments. Even with the detonator active and engaged there would be no possible way for the ring be blown to pieces in deep space. The recaptured portal had been opened but its exit point was still unknown. For all Nicoli knew it could have opened up into any random space or joined with an existing worm hole in space. The pods could have even been aimed at a star or black hole if they knew what they were doing. He sighed as no progress was being made and decided that if he was to be of any more use he would need steady nerves and rest.

A long time military man from the start, he was trained as a child that order meant success. His father was an Admiral with the British Naval fleet and was serving as an unofficial liaison between the British and Russian governments. It was during a tour in Russia that he met his future wife and Nicoli's mother. She was also from a military background and was raised by a former director of the KGB itself. She rose quickly but felt she was often held back by her status as a woman. Eventually they grew fond of each other through their government's negotiations for trade and commerce when the Soviet Union fell and she followed him to a better life. Soon after ward she was with child.

Two generations of military excellence gave rise to the third and Nicoli was born. To anyone else being raised by two military parents would be a living hell to a child but to Nicoli it was a constant adventure. Learning the art of warfare from two different worlds and the vast rich history of the blood shed of two ancient nations was more exciting than any gory story a simple comic book could ever be. Later in life his parents immigrated to the United States and he joined the military of his new adopted country and quickly excelled earning commendations and a free education in the finest officers' academy. To him, his parents were much more strict and orderly than the military and found ways to better train his own squads and troops, but before he would see service though he was transferred without warning or notice to a top secret research facility in the early fifties and was deployed into the farthest reaches of space to sit in his chair eternally dull and filled with feelings of regret.

He reached into his desk and removed a bottle and a glass tumbler and poured himself a helping of bourbon and settled into his chair for a relaxing nap. His eyes began to slowly close when his own intercom called his name.

"Director Winston," The intercom called. He opened his eye and unmoving pressed the answer key on his intercom.

"What is it? Have we made progress?"

"Yes sir, on multiple fronts. The engineers have discovered the other end of the portal and can open it once again. And the prisoner is willing to speak with you directly, sir."

"Very will then. I will see the prisoner first and send a scouting team to the portal to investigate the emergence point. I want to be sure that it is safe before sending anyone through that portal."

"Affirmative, Director. I will inform the warden of your pending arrival." The intercom clicked off and Nicoli stood from his chair and straightened his uniform and studied himself in the mirror for a moment. He wondered what his life would be like if he hadn't been so brilliant and what accomplishments he would have by now. He left his quarters and headed town the corridor to the elevator and then the prison area.

"Now there doesn't seem to be any major injury but I suggest that you don't to anything too strenuous for the next few days." The drugs were still clouding his head and made thinking difficult for Steve as the surgical team leader looked over his shoulder. The bullet had gone straight through his arm and shoulder and missed the major arteries but that didn't mean it wouldn't hurt.

"Does terrorism count as a strenuous activity, Doctor Sheppard?" Nicoli stood in the doorway like a haunting specter to Steve.

"Given his condition I would say it is, sir." Sheppard said, "At least if you get caught." He added. He had a disliking for Nicoli. He felt his cold demeanor and violent tactics were so wrong for a man in charge of a top secret organization that has its hands into everything. Even the furthest depths of space were nothing compared to his piercing eyes. It was almost as if Nicoli had no soul to call his own to Dr. Sheppard.

"So the great Director himself has come to see me?" Steve said with a slight smirk on his bruised and beaten face. "Well what is it then?"

"I see you don't believe in idle chit chat and wasting time, Steve." Nicoli said. He knew by that smirk on his face that Steve thought he was in charge. That he and he alone controlled the situation. He tightened his already balled fist and waited for his mouth to get him into trouble yet again. "Well neither do I, point of fact I hate it but you called me."

"In exchange for my cooperation I want a decent meal, clean clothes, a shower, a living quarters instead of a cell, you know like a suite or something that's usually for the higher ups and a…" Steve once again spun like a top and fell to the ground.

"In exchange for your services," Nicoli began wiping the blood from his hand onto the stunned Dr. Sheppard's scrubs, "I will treat you as leniently as is possible for a back stabbing little weasel like yourself should be treated and will try and refrain from smashing your head in with a brick or my boot." He grabbed Steve by the throat and lifted him along the wall till Nicoli's long arms had him over his head, "Lastly I will seriously consider the possibility of NOT throwing your worthless carcass out the nearest jettison port that catches my eye you piece of shit. Is that negotiable enough for you? Or do you want to try again?"

"Director, let go of my patient!" Dr. Sheppard said. "I will not have you accosting patient in my hospital!"

"Dr. Sheppard, may I remind you that you are not in charge of this hospital, only its surgical team. And I would also like to remind you that you were not chosen for your experience or your expertise in the field but because you can keep a secret and keep it well."

Nicoli then returned his attention to the gasping and coughing pile known as Steve. "All we need from you is a simple answer Steve. We know your name and background, we know you work for some kind of religious oddball group that despises our work and has some how managed to keep up with us even here and we know the destination of the pods. So what we need from you is why your organization chose to send the crystal to earth?"

Steve smiled through his pain and laughed, "It's headed for the closest sun you fool!" He laughed himself into more pain but didn't care anymore. No matter what they did to him now his mission was completed, they could do no more. He looked at the Director and smiled as he reached into his coat for what he guessed was a pistol.

"What are you going to kill me?" Nicoli removed a small, slim monitor from his jacket pocket and handed it to Steve. It was a projected map of the calculations that he had made to predict the path the pods would take to avoid the most traffic from planets and their gravitational fields though their travels throughout the solar system as they drifted toward the sun and destruction. "So you found my files, big deal. There's nothing you can do now."

"Actually you sent them to earth, not the sun. Press the green arrow in the corner. I can assure you the math is correct."

Steve looked back to the monitor and with some apprehension and confusion pressed the green arrow in the corner of the display screen. There was no problem with my calculations, he thought, none at all! The graphics showed small silver rings, representing his portal ring devices, and small white dots, for the escape pods, entering the rings. They appeared again just before the predicted orbit of mars and sailed though the empty space. Then it struck him, the small blue orb seemed to swerve into the path of the white dots and they disappeared.

"Your mathematics was correct but the fact of the matter is that you did not alter your formula. When you predicted sending them though space as projectiles without the aid of a portal you sent them at comet speeds toward the sun with clear indications that no planetary fields of gravity would be in the way. Using the portals not only removed the factor of intruding space of other objects but you removed the factor of time as well. Thank you for your answer."

Nicoli left the room and nodded to unseen figures in the corridor. Guards entered and dragged the weeping scientist back to his padded cell and locked him away where his cries would be heard by no one.

"Send word to the station at earth and headquarters that the infiltration has been identified and neutralized and that that the pods are expected to arrive at earth shortly." Nicoli said to the communications officer. He then returned to his office and his drink, ready to relax a little before the next report. It was out of his hands now and he had a station to continue running.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Apollo and Gaia

"I said a five second burn."

"That was a five second burn, Captain!"

"Bullshit!" He yelled into his mike. That's the fifth time during this mission that this rookie has questioned my command, Captain Burke thought. "That was a six second burn rookie and if you do that again I'm gonna clip your damn wings. Is that clear?"

"Yes sir. Sorry sir." said the rookie. Captain Burke wondered what he had done to deserve a high value mission with such a fresh crew.

"Don't fucking apologize either," Burke barked at the rookie pilot, "Saying 'sorry' ain't gonna bring back that fuel. We may be weightless but every sip of fuel in these buckets counts! So watch your maneuvering! No damned computer is gonna fix your dumb ass hot shot moves out here!"

"…Yes sir." The rookie said. His spirit sounded broken but that would heal in time if he was worth it as a pilot.

"Try and not kill Perkins alright, Burke?" a soothing voice said over his head set.

"Well I won't bite his head off as long as he don't fuck up again. How's that, Amelia?" Burke said with a smirk.

Amelia watched Burke and his squadron of newly trained pilots on her light radar. She was having some difficulties with trainees of her own.

"Excuse me?" Amelia turned to the young looking girl next to her at her radar station.

"Yes, Ms. Soto? What is it?" She asked. She couldn't blame Burke for being snappy with the graduates. They were always praised to be the top of their classes yet the seemed to have no real education outside of a simulator. Once they realized that they were in a real vacuum and death from any mistake. Although it could be considered insignificant, an extended burn takes away from the remaining fuel and could leave a pilot stranded in space for a long time.

"I have a question about the radar station." Melissa Soto was a new girl brought up from terra firma to be trained on the closest space station for the organization before being shipped out to a new location in the universe, wherever that may be.

Amelia simply stared at the radar display and ignored the girl waiting for her question. It seemed the younger they were the more like preschoolers they acted. "Well are you going to ask your question or are you going to raise your hand?"

"Oh." She said forgetting herself for a moment. "How does this work?" Amelia groaned and her head sunk with her chest. What the hell do they teach these kids in the academy these days? How to wipe? She thought to herself. She sighed after a long pause and looked at the display again.

"Simply put," Amelia began, "radar works by bouncing waves of energy off of objects to sort of 'see' where they are in relation to the station sending the signal. The energy goes out, is bounced off by objects and the reflected energy is what we read on the radar display as blips. This simply replaces the radio energy with light. The signals are faster and take less energy to produce. In reality you might as well say we're using flashlights to see in space."

"But why don't we just use radio waves?" Melissa asked, "I mean there's no air to slow down the energy wave right? So why use light?"

"We use light because it's one of the most abundant forms of energy available in a giant vacuum. We can collect the radiated light from stars, celestial events and even from man made structures like our light towers and emitters. Aside from that," Amelia said, "Well if you can name something faster than the speed of light then we'll use that in the next upgrade cycle." Amelia said, "Now pay attention to the screen here and tell me what you see." She heard nothing from her student for a while and looked at the trainee. She was now sulking to herself over her own ignorance.

"Look kid that wasn't a stupid question," Amelia began, "It's actually the most intelligent thing I've heard to day. Besides that if a technician can understand how her equipment works she can understand why it could be screwing up. That in of itself can save a lot of maintenance time for you. So if you have a question just ask. Now tell me what you see."

"Oh, Okay." Melissa scanned the screen for a moment. She saw an array of tiny dots and spheres representing Earth, the moon, and far behind them Mars. "I would say that the current squadron is currently heading to their next way point and the leader is…" she thought for a moment and pointed at the dot traveling furthest behind the formation, "That one!"

"What makes you say that?" Amelia said with a smile.

"The leader said that he was going to watch their formations while they were in route to the next point."

"Very good," Amelia said. What a bright one I got this time. Amelia thought to herself.

"I also think your monitor is acting funny." Melissa said. She pointed at the screen and Amelia went pale.

Burke listened to the rookies try to correct themselves. In his mind he was making a mental check list of their mistakes for later. The wing men were too busy trying to pilot their own ships rather than follow their assigned pilot; they were in too loose of a formation to junction their wings for group flight. He decided that it was time to intervene when two of the pilots nearly crashed into each other trying to link their wings together.

"You have to take a gentle approach when you're trying to link up."

"Why and the hell do we have to learn this crap?" one of the rookies said over the radio link. "What's the point? Won't it be easier for enemies to blast us like this?"

"It's for fuel conservation rookie. In space objects have mass but no weight so to speak. So when you link up with your team only one of you has to use the after burners to move the group which means the team uses less fuel."

"So what happens to the guy with the burners on? How's he supposed to fight?"

"Yeah won't he be out of fuel by the time he gets to act?"

Burk sighed in this cockpit as he tried to figure out how these hot shot pilots ever qualified for this assignment when one of the rookies chimed in and saved him from a growing headache.

"The guy using his thrusters to move the formation will have his fuel drained from the long range scout pods within the fighter itself. That way no fuel is used from the main or reserve tanks. When his reserve runs dry the formation switches around making him the lead plane of the formation and someone else takes position."

"Smart ass!" one of the rookies said before Burke shut him down.

"At least I know I got one pilot who understands how to work his ship unlike the rest of this sorry ass squadron. Maybe he'll be the one that makes it home from your first fight."

"Incoming enemy formation!" Burkes radio screamed, "On your starboard side, at least four enemy ships."

"What angle are they at?" Burke asked scanning the space to his right.

"High angle, gauging them now," Amelia said. Her fingers raced over her key pad as she commanded the computer to lock in on their attack angle on Burke's squadron.

"I think I see them. About my three o' clock and about one or two high and they don't look like any of our boys either. Their paint looks like those nut jobs that jumped the company ship years back. Boy they love our technology though don't they?"

"It would seem so Burke," Amelia said, "Look their using an older model of flyer but so are you. Those rookies haven't had enough flight experience to render them useful too you either."

"I think I got one that can help me," Burke said flipping various switches on his ships control panels. A bright flash of yellow light flew by the plastic bubble dome of his cockpit and Burke yelled, "SonofaBitch! They're askin' for it, Amelia! Give me ma full flight controls. I'm gonna teach these assholes a thing or two about flying in space.

"Alright but at least wait till I get another squadron scrambled for support." Amelia said pulling up his ship on her profile assignment page and unlocking the flight restrictions on Burke's ship.

"What are you doing?" Melissa asked.

"I'm removing the flight restrictions on Burke's ship so pay attention. This unlocks the restrictions on the flight capabilities of the ship," Amelia said clicking on a round icon with tiny wings on it. She then moved a slider down to zero and confirmed her choice. "Now this fighter can be used to its fullest, and clicking here," she said pointing on a small bullet icon, "Deactivates the restrictions on their weapons as well. Now that I've showed this to you deactivate the restrictions on the other fighters as well and get them back in the hanger!"

Melissa stiffened for a salute and ran back to her station and began her work.

"Why the hell are you removing restrictions on my cadets?" Burke said watching his ship awaken from its restrictive mode, "They're just gonna get in my damn way!"

"He's right!" one of the pilots shouted out over the radio, "We can't even get these things to fly in a straight line let alone combat maneuvers. Just send a team to collect us or something or…"

"Shut the fuck up, Nansen. These ladies think, for what ever reason they may have, that we may be of some kind of fucking use to Burke and I for one an not going to be happy with just letting some other pilot risk his life just to collect me like a baby from an ocean. Now just tell me how to fly this damn thing though space already, they're closing in on our location."

"Who the hell is this?" Amelia asked with a smile.

"Ensign Pilot Aaron Brown, ma'am," He answered back.

"Alright, Brown. Are you ready for a crash course in piloting a space fighter?" Amelia said to him.

A flash of light streaked past his cockpit followed by a small amount of cursing from the young ensign, "I don't feel I have a choice but I always like a challenge in my education. Give me everything."

"Alright, first of hit your engine to forty percent power and then take a look at your wings," Amelia's voice said over the radio. He pushed his throttle forward and slowly began to pick up speed. He looked at his wings and saw something odd and decided it would be best to ask about the multi-million dollar piece of equipment he was attempting to maneuver. "What's with those tiny lights on my elevators? I thought those were only for flight in an atmosphere but their open. What's going on?"

"You got a quick eye kid. Those tiny lights are micro thrusters. They have about a twentieth the power of your main engine and replace the need for an air flow by directing the thrusters and the ship in the direction you want to go in, just like flying a normal plane on terra firma, kiddo." Amelia said.

"Now that you got that just fly the damn thing kid!" Burke interrupted. Amelia watched on her radar screen as Burke maneuvered around the older ships but they were still outnumbered ten to one and with the kid being the only one of the rookies to even venture out into the fray that still left them at a five to one disadvantage. They could easily win with the advanced ships but they could easily be sent home in a box if they underestimated the enemy, even for an instant. Amelia hoped that they kept that in mind during the battle. Her ear piece beeped as it received an incoming message and she opened the channel.

"Just got a report from command," she said, "they've scrambled a squad to escort the rookies back to base but they're asking for some cover if possible. Think the rookie can handle it Burke?"

As Amelia's transmission ended the second ship of the enemy formation erupted into a small flash of flame and shrapnel. "I think the kid's gonna be alright." Burke said to Amelia, "Look at your display." Amelia let out a deep breath of relief as she watched the screen. She saw the enemy formation with only six of their ten fighters remaining, but still advancing toward the grouping of rookies. The escort ships were functioning with the ensigns already so they would soon be out of harm's way but something still bothered her about this.

"I got one!" Aaron yelled over his mike like an excited child.

"Great kid, don't get cocky!" Burke said taking down another ship with his plasma bolt cannon.

Burke swerved his ship around the enemy scraps and lined up his second approach on his repeated attack run. The cannon loaded a heavy metal and chemical round into the chamber awaiting the laser guidance to lock on. The display in Burke's ship notified him of a possible shot and he squeezed his trigger. A bolt of electricity shot though the brass shell of the round and an intricate ballet of cascading chain reactions causing the chemicals to expand and heat up to blistering temperatures in the blink of an eye exciting the round itself as it sped toward its intended target. The hot slug of compressed metal alloys and steady release of glowing plasma gasses made short work of the ships outer shell melting though like a wood burner through butter, slicing though the auxiliary engine lines and oxidizer pump and out the lower hull leaving the fuel and oxidizing fluid to turn the engine compartment and storage space behind the cockpit into a firebomb.

"Just a few more kid and then we go home. Don't get shot now alright?" Burke said. He felt his ship jostle violently and his engines died. "Crap, I have no power control. Can some one clue me in?"

Amelia typed away at her monitor as Melissa watched over her shoulder. She bought up the status display of Burke's ship and saw his engines were disabled. Further checks showed her the cause of the problem but there was no quick solution for him.

"Burke?" she said.

"Well what's the diagnosis, doc? Can I try and restart or am I debris?"

"That last shot just tore though your main fuel line but it didn't touch the liquid oxygen lines so your safe for now but you can't fly like that. You're stuck Burke."

"Well it looks like I won't be seeing ya soon sweetness." Burke said looking though his cockpit as his ship drifted slowly though the firing path of the last few enemy ships.

"Oh god no, Burke!" Amelia yelled over the radio, Burke closed his eyes and felt a jostle to his port side and expected to see either St. Peter with an angry look on his face or the devil with a welcoming smile. Instead he got Aarons voice over the radio.

"You really didn't think that I'm going to let someone take you out with a lucky shot like that, sir?" Aaron quickly finished the junction of their ships at their wings and took control of both their ships. "Your engine's toast but at least the micro thrusters on your wings work. I can fly this scrap heap but I don't think I can fire your weapons from here, sir. I think you're still of use to some of us today."

"Thank god," Amelia said, "Goddamn it, Burke you scare me like that again they're going to need a proctologist just to find my boot. You hear me!" she yelled. "And as for you rookie," she said, "Next time don't take so damn long!"

"Sorry," Aaron said, "Still getting the hang of this thing."

"Don't apologize kid just line up the shot. I can win this battle but you're gonna lose that war with her." Aaron pulled the ships around in a tight turn for the last run. He shifted his weapons controls to Burke and he fired the twin sets of twin plasma bolt cannons, dispatching the last of the enemy ships.

"How we doing so far, Amelia?" Burke asked.

Melissa looked at the screen and swept the area with her scanners once more before nodding to Amelia. "This is Tower coordinator Amelia Hartly giving you guys the all clear. Come on home if you can manage we have crews standing by for repairs and medical if you need it."

"Yeah I'm gonna need the best medical team we have 'cause my ass is asleep." Burke said. Aaron quietly laughed to himself as he guided the connected ships to the space station.

Amelia watched on her radar screen with Melissa as the two ships, two conjoined bubbles on her monitor, slowly made their way back to base. She saw two more conjoined blips make their way to Burke and Brown before she was startled by her radio headset.

"Tower Command to Tower Coordinator, come in Tower Coordinator." Amelia took a breath and then answered, "This is Tower Coordinator Amelia Hartly. Go ahead Tower Command."

"This is Tower Command Howard Bridges, those pilots have been reassigned by Admiral Preston."

"What the hell? Can't we get a break?" Burke said over the radio. "We just got shot at and you still wanna toss us into fucking space for an assignment?"

"Thank you for your opinion Burke. I don't need to remind you that your review is coming up and this little indiscretion will be ignored in light of your efforts but you are still on a mission. You yourself, Burke, have not been reassigned."

"Who has been reassigned then, sir? If you don't mind me asking," Aaron said.

"You have son. You are Ensign Pilot Aaron Brown right?" Bridges asked.

"Yes, sir. Just passed my qualifiers a week ago and this was my first flight mission, sir."

"Well the Admiral was quite impressed with your show and asked me to reassign you personally." Bridges said, "But before I do that any thing to say?"

"I would rather stay with my Captain, sir." Aaron said.

"Good," Bridges said, "Then there won't be much trouble with this then. Aaron Brown you are herby promoted to Pilot and you are not to leave Captain Burke's wing is that clear?"  
"Yes, sir," Aaron said.

"Hey," Burke said, "What the hell did I ever do to you to deserve a rookie as a wing man?"

"Well he saved your ass for one, Frank, and you still owe me five hundred on that poker game last month."

"Well…" Burke said, "Since you put it so eloquently. I guess I can take the kid under my wing for a while."

"I thought so. Now we'll be sending you back into the fray but we'll be replacing your flight crew with some seasoned pilots and you'll both be getting new ships to complete the mission."

"Hey those are some nice rides." Aaron said. The new ships were being guided in by their new pilots. As soon as the ships were linked to the older ships Burke and Brown they stepped out in their survival suits and climbed into the newer ones. They locked themselves in and disconnected from the older vessels.

"Amelia," Bridges said, "Can you give these men a quick rundown of these newer ships. I know Burke has had some experience in these but I believe this is the first time Brown and the two replacements you got have ever handled these."

"Right sir," Amelia said. She cleared her throat and began to instruct Burke and Aaron on their new craft. "The key difference in these craft is the addition of the new high yield thrusters on the wing tips and we like to call them blast thrusters. They act like the micro thrusters on your elevators but careful with those. They pack a mean punch."

"Well what's so different about these? I mean a thruster is a thruster right?"

"True but these are extremely high performance. It's almost like setting off a bomb on your wing tips. Use these at the wrong time or improperly and you're likely to tear a wing off. It's happened before."

"That's nice to know. What's the main reason for these things anyway?" Burke asked.

"Well try them out and see." Amelia said. "First off just try to gain as much speed as possible like your trying to escape for some reason or you're going in for a high speed strafing run."

"Okay." Burke said, "Let's give it a go." He pushed up his throttle and pressed the small red thruster button on the control.

From his ship, Aaron watched the captain's ship go from a dead stop in space to almost full throttle in mere seconds. The craft wobbled a little at first but then began to execute maneuvers he had never seen before. Between the high angle turns, rapid rolls, and steep dives, Aaron almost forgot that he was watching a space craft instead of an air craft. He understood how a pilot should be in their craft, comfortable and agile as well as a little fearless.

Burke guided his ship to the rest of the group and keyed up his mike, "Man," Burke said, "Do you know how long it's been since I've been able to fly like that? Made me think back on a lot of old memories from my air force days, so what else can these puppies do?"

"You mean other than inspire nostalgia in old war horses? Plenty," Amelia said, "It also has a power shift diverter so you can pour power into both thrusters equally for a sustained and level speeds or dump all power into one thruster for a full 180 degree turn in mid flight, should help you guys to get the drop on the enemy if they're behind you or if you miss a shot. It might also help you get back to base on time for refueling for once."

"That's a low blow!" Burke said over his radio. The sleek new fighters were a great improvement over the fighter Burke was used to piloting but he still worried about his new rookie, Aaron. This was his first flight out on a mission and Burke was told that there would be no resistance and he was given a fresh crew to train while on the recovery mission but now out of no where there's enemies coming at them with, although outdated and old, equipment that they shouldn't possess. He could have sworn that those old fighter frames were the first model fighters that he used when he signed up as a rookie almost twenty years ago. Where did they get those fighters from, Burke wondered. His radio cracked and he Tower Commander broke in.

"Is that all there is on these Amelia?" Bridges asked.

"Yes sir," Amelia said, "Other than the thrusters and improved design the ship is essentially the same. Think of these and the comet version two point o."

"What about armament and ordinance payload?" Aaron asked, "Is that the same to?"

"Oh I almost forgot about that." Amelia said, "You guys have the standard twin plasma bolt machine guns that you always had but you also have a few new weapons on board. These have high energy pulse laser cannons and mine dispensers at the rear."

"Slipping in your old age dear?" Aaron said trying to mimic Burke. Amelia smiled and began clicking buttons on her console. Melissa peered over her shoulder as she opened the defensive measures menu for the ship and focused on Aaron's ship.

"Amelia," Bridges said, "Would you please stop targeting Mr. Brown's ship?"  
"She's what?" Aaron froze in his ship as he looked to the cannons on the ship and saw only the black recesses of the barrels against the white paint of the ship.

"She's just kidding kid. But even I'm not stupid enough to try and make fun of her age. And just so you know, ya might wanna say away from any weight jokes too." The cannons returned to their normal positions along the ship and Aaron breathed a sigh of relief.

"Sorry sir," Amelia said, "Just putting the kid in his place." Melissa slowly backed away from her post behind Amelia.

"Can get back on topic please?" Bridges said. "Now pay attention. Your new squadron will now be partaking in a high risk, high priority mission. Given the situation it now seems that the enemy is now much more serious about trying to halt our work and is now resorting to stealing our own technology to use against us."

"Does that mean that the secrecy of the organization is at risk?" Burke asked.

"No." Bridges said, "For what ever reason they have not made us or themselves for that matter public which is a cause for concern for us as it is their established mission to expose us to the world an destroy all our efforts. It's obvious to us that they have taken over the last abandoned facilities we left behind and are launching their attacks from Earth itself now using our bases as their own. As for the technology they possess it seems that it's what's left over from our exodus into space for more privacy."

"I thought those fighters looked familiar." Burke said. "I flew in one of those during my training period when I was a rookie."

"Yes," Bridges said, "So fortunately for us that means that they still do not have the technological capacity to wage a full scale space war with us but it means that they are still on our proverbial tails. If we slip up enough or at the wrong moment they could rapidly close the technology gap and we could have a full conflict."

"Excuse me for interrupting," Melissa said on the radio, "But if we were to enter into a conflict with these radicals the projections dictate a massive and total loss for the enemy."

"True but it would also cause unnecessary losses on our side as well and it would also attract too much attention." Bridges explained. "The losses and attention are reasons the high command deems a winnable war a loss for us as it would mean that we would no longer be able to operate without interference from the ever changing moral majority of Earth."

"So now we have to deal with some organization using our leftovers to try and destroy us." Burke said.

"For now but this mission is high priority for a reason. If we fail it could tip the balance of power into their hands…permanently."

No one spoke for a few tense moments as they tried to grasp the magnitude of the situation. After a short while Bridges continued with his mission briefing.

"This mission is to prevent the destruction and to possibly recover the lost artifact that was stolen by a cell placed in one of our facilities."  
"What!" they yelled over their radios.

"What the hell do you mean 'cell'? How the hell did the brotherhood float an agent by us?" Burke yelled

"Does this mean that the mission is compromised from the start with this kind of breach of security?" Melissa asked Amelia who in turn asked Bridges the same question.

"What was taken? How can this item have that kind of effect on the research?"

"Calm down everyone." Bridges said. "It seems that the sleeper was someone they managed to turn during their stay on their assigned station."

"How did they do that?" Amelia asked.

"A heavily religious family and a longing girlfriend were duped into giving up the location to a clever member of the brotherhood. After that they followed the e-mail signals to the server location. After that there were numerous hacker attacks were launched and we're guessing a piggyback beacon was attached to a fake letter from the family and he was contacted by the membership under the guise of the girlfriend." Bridges said, "From there they began to convert him over time until he finally turned and at the worst possible time too since he was the lead scientist behind our portal research."

"How long ago was this?" Amelia asked plotting a course for their projected intercept point. "Like a year or so?"

"Two days ago." Bridges said.

"What?" Amelia said. "It can't be here in two days unless it's traveling faster than light! It's just impossible!"

"They planted a portal and sent it though. Using the same portal, the Hades sent a squadron of fighters after the target and they will be joining with your group as soon as they are within range of your fighters. You are to escort these fighters and try to protect them since the chase group is using an older model of fighter."

"So we're running a babysitting operation?" Burke said.

"Yes I'm afraid so." Bridges said, "But at least it means we won't have to deal with the cargo. Personally I would rather it be destroyed than fall into the enemy hands and high command feels the same way. You and the other squadron have been directed to destroy the targets if they are in danger of falling into enemy hands."

"That's affirmative Tower Commander. Where's the rendezvous point?"

"It's being uploaded into your ships as we speak."

"Alright," Burke said, "Let's move out."

Aaron stared into the blackness of space against the blue haze of Earth's atmosphere as the formation around the ring awaited the portal's activation. They were all poised around the ring with their plastic windshield's facing inward toward the ring so they could all observe. Even in this position Aaron could still see the giant blue marble that he once called home surrounded by darkness and twinkling lights. It was a sharp contrast in his mind's eye. It was the difference of perspective that he gained when he was shipped into space to serve his country. As a boy he looked into the night sky and saw space as a realm of infinite possibilities and wonderful adventure. Fighting aliens, saving pretty women on spaceships, going places only available to the imagination but as he broke thought the atmosphere for the first time and saw the blackness of space surround him he was reminded of reality. Floating past his window he saw something shiny that shouldn't be there. It was a wrist watch.

He remembered asking about the watch and learning the harsh reality that inside their pressurized vessel was life giving oxygen and air. Outside was the cold, lifeless void of space. As it turns out is was an accident that was not really anyone's fault so to speak. It was just a faulty seal.

"You awake kid?" A voice broke through Aaron's radio and startled him.

"Will you quit calling me kid? I'm older than you!" Aaron said.

"Yeah but I've been flying these longer than you have."

"Oh yeah a whole four years," Aaron shot back, "Real achievement, Hanson."

Hanson smiled a little. It was so easy to get at Aarons nerves by mentioning flying. Hanson and Aaron were only four years apart but it was Hanson's natural ability as a pilot and his unique way of thinking that let him adapt to space flight so quickly.

"It's not my fault that I got the concepts earlier than most." Hanson said, "I guess I'm just that good."

"Yeah well I can smoke the both of ya so shut the fuck up for a moment. The portal thing is opening." Burke interrupted. The inner track of the ring began to glow and a blue light began to form a ring of its own. The energy ring closed in forming a smooth surface of pure energy that to Aaron looked like a large mirror.

"Get ready. They're coming though." Burke said. They lit their engines and slowly pushed forward away from the ring. Behind them the surface rippled and a shall cluster of egg shaped pods sped though the surface followed by an eight ship squadron of space fighters.

"Chase 'em down!" Burke yelled over the radio and the group pushed their ships into full throttle and began to chase the ships.

"Hades' ghost squadrons one and two to chase unit this is Captain Libra, come in please."

"I copy you Hades' squadron; this is Captain Burke with the Terra squadron from the space station Gaia."

"You our escorts for this chase down?" Captain Libra asked.

"That's right ma'am." Burke said.

"Just you guys?" Libra said, "I kinda expected a larger group than this for protection. I guess you guys don't get a lot of action out here then huh?"

"Actually we just got attacked not but two hours ago by a small grouping of eight."

"And this is it?" Captain Libra was shocked to say the least. After an attack only two hours ago there still isn't any increase in security?

"Why haven't you increased security? What if there's another attack?"

"I believe I can answer that."

"Unknown," Libra said, "Identify your self."

"Sorry Libra. This is Tower Commander Howard Bridges of the Space station Gaia" he said, "You will be pleased to know that we have all remaining squadrons onboard ready to scramble and we have even adjusted our trajectory around the Earth to remain stationary for the duration of the mission so the main defensive armament of Gaia will be available to assist."

"My apologies, Tower Command," She said, "I didn't know."

"No need, Captain Libra," Bridges said, "You weren't briefed and the change was just made."

The ships moved closer to the escaping pods and moved into position. "Prepare for tow cable attachment." Captain Libra said as the ships followed behind and high over the pods. "Firing in three…Two…one…"

"What the hell?" Aaron said as a small metal disk stuck to his cockpit window and sparked. He watched as others flew toward his ship and he pulled away from the formation, "Burke! I think we're under attack!" A small disk latched onto Captain Libra's ship and sparked.

"Libra come in!" Burke yelled into the radio but all he heard was her sporadically cursing at her ships controls.

"Incoming enemy combatants!" Amelia yelled over the radio.

"All squadrons scramble!" Bridges commanded. "Activate the ships defenses and protect those fighters!"

"What about the escort team? They've been disabled by some sort of electric discharge round!" Burke said.

"Link up and bring them in. Your team should be able to bring them all in, two to a ship."

"Copy." Burke said. He drifted closer to Libra's ship and her wingman and linked up to their wings. "Get the rest!"

"Fighters coming up behind us!" Aaron yelled over his radio as laser pulses fired past his ship.

"Fire Cannon," Bridges commanded to the fire control teams.

The ships computer locked onto a small group of fighters moving in on a flat plane attack formation. The cannon barrel slowly tracked the ships as they glided closer and began to fire shots at the escaping vessels. The barrel glowed and fired.

"They've got a lock on me!" Aaron said trying to power up the other two ships on his wings but their electrical systems were still down and wouldn't function. He turned his ship to make a direct run to the ship's bay when he saw the ships accelerate and their weapons glow slightly as their lasers charged for another salvo of shots. He tried to brace for the laser blast impacts when he saw a shining beam of light sweep over the enemy ships and they vanished, leaving only metal bits and scorched panels.

"Hurry up kid! The ion cannons take time to charge again and we don't have it!" Burke yelled over the radio. Aaron saw other flashes of blinding light fly into open space and sweep over enemy ships and destroy them. Once again he was reminded of the fear that began to creep over him and the thin barrier of plastic and metal that separated him from the cold death of space. He guided his ship into the hanger and landed as the battle raged on outside.

The deck commander signaled him to release the wing locks and to climb out of his ship. "Why the hell do I have to disembark?" Aaron said.

Aaron opened his cockpit and heard a woman yelling in a loud and authoritative voice. "Get my fucking plane back into space or so help me I will ram my foot up your fucking ass!" He looked over to see Burke sitting on top of his ship watching Captain Libra yell at any deck hand that happened to make eye contact. She was beginning to boil over and Aaron jumped out of his ship and rushed over to help a mechanic that she had gotten her hands on.

"Lydia!" Burke said, "They can't do anything for your ship right now. The electric discharge fried your ships circuit boards and weapons systems. It's a dead bird. If you feel that bad about it then take some of your people and take my squads ships."

"Burke." She said in a small and quiet voice, "You would really do that for me?"

"For the mission, Lydia," He said, "For the mission and nothing else." Libra felt a hand pull the mechanic away and the feel of cold metal in his hand. Aaron had handed her his command slip for his ship.

"It's for the new ship. Just slide it in and punch in your access code. It should work."

"You're willing to help me to?" She said.

"It's what the Captain wants and he's gotten me out of trouble before so I have to return the favor."

A hand shot out and removed the key from her and pressed it against Aaron's chest. "That won't be necessary Captain Burke. The pods have escaped the area and have made planet fall. If they don't burn up they'll be recovered by our people on the planet."

"It's out of our hands now. After the ships have been repaired and can function then they'll be sent back to the Hades and we wait for the Earth crew to do their work."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: The Wanderer

The Captain stared out the bridge windows as the sun set behind Earth and eclipsed them in darkness once more. He felt a slight chill for a moment and the heaters began their quick work of re-stabilizing the atmospheric temperature in the ship. The elevator doors behind him opened and a small group of people entered and took their seats around the Captains desk and waited. He closed his eyes and tried to think back to the days when the gentle waves of the ocean gently rocked him like a child in his mothers arm. He missed the constant motion of the sea and her moods. He was a true child of the sea, one of Poseidon's own sons if it were ever to be true. But most of all he missed the complexity of the ocean itself. Not at all like the clear, black emptiness of space but the dark and deep fathoms of water that squeeze you as you dive deeper giving way to the thought the more danger and pressure you encounter the greater the treasure you will find.

The Captain turned and looked slowly at the crowd that had been summoned to his office. To his left was Amelia Heartly, a tower coordinator. Then there was the pilot instructor Burke and his newest rookie wingman Aaron Brown, the Tower commander Howard Bridges and the Earth Liaison Emma Trish and beside her was the rather angry looking Captain Lydia Libra.

"I guess I should begin by explaining why I called you all here." The Captain began.

"Your damn right you should! Why the hell hasn't my crew been cleared to leave this scrap heap yet? What the fuck could be so important this time?" Lydia yelled.

"Lydia! Control yourself or," Howard said. The Captain simply waved off Howard's attempt to defend his Captain's honor and sighed.

"I think I can handle this one, Howard," the Captain said. "Well the truth is that something happened that is really fucking important Captain Libra. And your crew hasn't gotten permission to leave because Director Winston sent me this transmission after I explained the current situation to him and ordered you to adhere to my command. That's why you can't fucking leave."

With that, all of Lydia's anger and frustration were destroyed like so many enemy ships. She'd been though screaming matches before in her career but the way the Captain spoke to her was beyond anything she had ever gone though. He never once raised his voice and from the sound of it he was being sarcastic and she could almost swear he was making fun of her but she couldn't be sure and she sat quiet.

"Now then. Any other questions?" The Captain asked, "Good. The reason I have called in this special meeting is to ascertain a few facts before filing my own report with the high command. I would first like to state that this is not an inquisition but a fact finding mission of my own because I like my job and the stuffy assholes that run this organization are more concerned with secrecy and blaming the appropriate party rather than solving the problem." The Captain simply ignored that most of his audience was stunned, except for Burke who seemed to be enjoying himself very well, "So in a fit of defiance and, well just to piss off the high command I will ask each of you a few questions and see what the result is. Now Burke," The Captain began.

"Yes sir, Captain Gate?" Burke answered.

"David please," Captain Gate said, "I've been up for thirty two hours straight with the pencil pushers in high command trying to explain things so lets forgo the formalities shall we? Now to my understanding and as per the day's recordings you were in a training simulation with your new crew as well as an assignment correct?"

"Yes sir. I was training the new rookies. Mr. Brown can testify to that fact."

"Oh. So you're the fabulous Mr. Aaron Brown that I've heard so much about? Fantastic flying out there son, maybe you can even give Burke here a reason to slosh out of bed in the morning. So you and your crewmates were on a training assignment?"

"Yes sir. Formations and linkages. Then we were going to move on to advanced piloting tactics."

"Then those brotherhood assholes attacked. Amelia. You have radar confirmation of the enemy intrusion correct?"

"Yes sir. My trainee found them." Amelia said showing a bit of pride in her assistant Melissa.

"I guess the trainees are better than the trainers on this station." Amelia shot a look down the row at a new girl she had never seen before. She sat cross legged like a primed and proper housecat in her tan dress suit and orange blouse. "I guess they should just send in all the children into space and leave the old folks in their rocking chairs."

"Well excuse this old lady for asking but would you kindly tell me your name so I can tell the nurses in the hospital wing."

"My name is Emma Trish, sweetheart. And you aren't the first to threaten me dear."

"Who said threaten? I just figured that I would tell the nurses everything since you'll only be able to scream when I ram my foot up your ass, Dolly!"

"Ladies, if we can hold back on the mud wrestling till later I have to get this damn report filed so if you please."

"I get the feeling you don't really like your command sir." Aaron said aloud.

"Well if you spent most of your life at peace on the sea to only to get thrown into the cold reaches of dead space to stare at your one and only love I think you might just get to feel the same way son. But between you, me, and the medical corps it's called space dementia. Now then where were we?"

"Before or after the brown bitch interrupted." Amelia said.

"Well I never!" Emma said.

"First time for everything," Captain Gate said to Emma before returning his attention to Amelia, "Before."

"My trainee Melissa Soto spotted the intrusion at almost the maximum readable distance for our radar capabilities."

"Impressive for a trainee. I must say you've done you job well. Now then after the attack your ships were…er…replaced?"

"Yes sir," Burke said. "At your request sir."

"Ah. Yes. Of course. Don't remember that but it's in the record here so it must be so. Now then you received your new ships and crew and that were Ms. Lydia comes into play." Gate said sweeping his attention over to Lydia while she sulked in her chair.

"After coming though the gate what happened?" Gate asked.

"We were ambushed by long range fire and our ships were disabled before we could get our cargo. We were then rescued by our escort team and brought into the hangar for repairs."

"Excellent. Well not the action and failure of the mission but you and your people did everything by the book and so did we so there's nothing to worry about so chin up sweet cheeks."

"I'm sorry but are you some kind of pervert?" Lydia asked getting upset again.

"Maybe. Space dementia darling, it's a wonderful thing. Now we come to you Ms. Trish. What the fuck happened on your end according to them."

"I don't know. The only team that actually found anything hasn't come back. When they sent others to check things out all they found was a buzzard buffet. Not a single survivor." She said.

"So that confirms my suspicions." Captain Gate said taking on an unfamiliar serious tone, "then no one is at fault. Very well. You may all go. Go on." He said shooing them out of his office.

The elevator closed and he watched the lights slowly click down and pressed a button on his desk phone. "Clark? This is Dave on Gaia. Just finished my investigation and the facts are as standing. Everything went by the book but the Brotherhood caused enough mayhem to let the pods escape. It seems that the slippery bastards are more slippery than we thought. Looks like Shade's work by the sound of things. Yeah. All's clear up here. Just find the damn thing before they can use it. I know high command isn't going to be happy. Well I don't care what you tell those assholes. Aw damn it all, just tell them I told them to go fuck themselves. Suspension? Ha! I could use the time off. Goodbye Clark." He said hanging up, "You ass kisser."

The Captain resumed his post gazing out the window of his bridge office and sighed. "I would give anything to be back with you my beloved sea. And god have mercy on the poor fool who has to clean up the mess if that damn crystal gets used."

The clash of steel, bone and sinew echoed through the halls a lone knight fought his way up the castle steps to the main hall. A door bursts open from the force of a dozen goblin bodies colliding into it and scatter like litter on the brick ground of the castle court yard. The knight enters and his armor shines like silver in the blazing sun. His spear in hand he is invincible and his conquest will not be averted for anything. Goblin archers appear on walkways around him and surround him. Perched high on their walls the laugh and take aim. He holds up his spear and shouts at his enemies.

"I am Anton! Should you wish to live, abandon your weapons and posts and leave immediately! Or be slain!"

As if to answer his challenge a hundred arrows flew at him all at once, and hit nothing. Confused the goblins scoured the court yard with their dark eyes and found no trace of the hero. A shrill pig like squeal from one of the corner posts and the clash of steel and brick and the hero crashed though the roof of the corner archer house. Inside could be heard the blood curdling screams of goblin archers. With a kick he smashed the western door down and flew across the parapet like an arrow, spear poised before him. He rolled out into a stop and began slashing his way through with his spear to the next archer house and the next and the next until the goblins lay dead on the walkway or on the court yard below. His bloodshed ended he leapt from the wall into the courtyard and dashed though the heavy wooden doors to his next obstacle.

He dashed up more stairs and crashed through the next door and found himself one man against a small army of goblins.

"Either move or be moved. My spear knows only blood and death." The goblins unanimously drew their tiny swords and began the charge. Anton leapt into the air like a arrow and threw down his glowing spear deep into the goblin mass. An explosion of blue flames erupted and swept many goblins away in a massive arc of fire. He landed by his trusty spear and pulled.

"What?" He looked at the ground and saw his spear had become deeply lodged into the heavy stone that lined the great hall floor. "This won't stop me!" He pulled with all his might and a massive brick came along with his spear and he smashed it against every goblin close enough like a giant hammer. The fight continued for a few moments before a shrill scream and many turned goblin glances forced him to look at the door that waited for him at the end of his battle. Goblin troopers in heavy steel armor began their charge as goblin after goblin began leaping back from their direct path to the armor clad hero.

"Is that all?" He said swinging up is sapphire cape to his eyes and swinging his spear behind him. "Take this!" He threw his spear with its brick and watched as it smashed though the enemy ranks and he followed quickly after it. The spear smashed against the wall and his hammer brick was destroyed, leaving only his spear stuck into the wall. He pulled it out easily and continued the onslaught and smashed though the door followed by hundreds of goblin warriors.

"This is taking too long!" Anton said sending a small wave of goblins flying. "I have to save her!" He slipped his hand into a pouch on his back and rolled out a scroll.

"Dragon Flame!" He shouted. The paper glowed like the sun and unrolled further, changing into a grand dragon made entirely of fire. It roared as it unraveled around the hero before charging off on its own, burning any goblin it found to ashes with its fiery claws and volcanic breath. The few remaining goblins were chased out as the hero walked though the bones and ashes left as he looked at his final ascent. He charged up the steps and heard the last of the goblin troopers begin their decent down from their guard post at the top of the tower. He leapt into open air and caught a hanging banner and swung around like a rope acrobat. As the goblin troopers charged down the stairs in a line they saw only Anton's armored boots and fell back and then down to their doom. He charged up the remaining steps and found a single white door. He slowed his breathing and cleared his throat. He slowly opened the white door and entered.

There she was, more beautiful than he had ever hoped or dreamed, lying peacefully like a sleeping child. He slowly and quietly walked up to the sleeping princess and drew back her curtains about her bed and kneeled down beside her sleeping figure. He gently brushed her soft cheek with his armored hand and gently as could be stirred her from her sleep. She slowly opened her eyes and saw the head of a dragon staring back at her and though alarmed she stared deeper into the eye of the beast before realizing it was a knight in armor.

"Who are you brave knight?" She asked in a voice like soft velvet.

"I am Anton the Lancer of the Sapphire Dragon." He said.

"I would like to see the face of the hero who rescued me." She said slowly lifting the dragon faced mask of his helmet. She smiled and spoke, "Such a hansom face. And now could you remove your helmet so that I may kiss the lips of the man who rescued me?" She asked.

"I am your obedient servant, my lady." Anton said removing his helmet. His long dark hair drifted down around his armored shoulders and curled slightly. They slowly leaned closer and closer for their first kiss.

"Anton." She said. "Anton, please."

"Yes my lady?"

"Wake up you idiot!"

"What?" Anton found himself back in the reality of his life. Around him were no stone walls but brick and drywall and pastel paint of the classroom, there were no goblins but only other students just as tired and sleepy as he was and lastly there was no princess, just the blond haired angel that seemed to enjoy poking him awake a little too much.

"Alright," Anton said rubbing his shoulder, "alright already! I'm up damn it."

"You're supposed to pay attention! He asked you a question." She said pointing at the math teacher.

"Yeah, I'm also supposed to stay awake during classes but what are ya gonna do?" Anton replied rubbing his eyes.

"This." She said before stabbing him in the arm with her pen.

"Oow!" Anton said, "Quit that!"

"If you don't fall asleep again I won't poke you." She said with a cat like smirk.

"I can get you to stop." Anton said putting his glasses back on, "If I wanted to."

She smiled again as the professor seemed to continue without getting an answer from his sleeping student and took advantage of the situation. "Oh really?" she said poking Anton again, "You can make me stop?" She said poking him once more.

"Pain turns me on." He said with as straight a face as he could muster. She froze in mid poke with her pen in hand and her eye twitched a little. She squeaked and curled up into a ball at her desk trying to push the thought of Anton screaming 'oh yeah' as she whipped him with chains in a black leather costume and mask.

"Oh right. I forgot you're a very visual person aren't you?" He said. He leaned over to her and whispered, "Enjoy the show, and I prefer to be spanked." She squeaked again and curled up even tighter half laughing, half screaming in disgust and wholly trying not to make any noise.

The bell rang and Anton dashed out of class laughing like a mad man as the blonde chased him out of the building wielding a math book like a hammer. He found safety and sanctuary in the main student building and made a sharp skidding turn into the place known only as the rec. room.

Anton raced past the pool tables and leapt over the players on the couch and hid behind a pile of their things. The blond avenger raced in soon after wielding her book of supreme justice and searched everywhere for the target known as Anton's head.

"I know you're in here, Anton!" She called.

"Running from Jessie again, Anton?" Anton looked up to see one of his friends playing a fighting game and not even glancing at him.

"Yoshi! Look don't give me away and I'll, uh, buy you lunch today. Okay? Deal?" Anton pleaded.

"Sure." Yoshi said playing his game like nothing had happened. "He's over here Jessie!" Anton punched Yoshi on the foot and he yelled, "Ow! What? I can't eat for three days because of a doctor's appointment anyway so I'd rather have entertainment."

Anton dashed away past the bar with Jessie following behind very closely rushing past a taller man in glasses and a trucker hat. "Hey Anton!" He said as his small friend streaked past. He sat on the couch beside Yoshi and asked. "So what's up with Anton? Woman trouble?"

"I can't be sure but it's funny." Yoshi said focusing on his game. "Wanna play Dustin?"

"Sure." Dustin said picking up a spare controller and joining in. "I wonder where she chased him to."

Anton watched from his hiding spot between the giant, painted cement pylons that upheld the stairs as Jessie stalked him. He watched her for a while and drifted out of his own skin for a moment and was taken back to his orientation. When they first met she wasn't in any condition to talk or do much of anything. He remembered it well.

He had spent the day moving further and further from his own comfort zone and repeatedly into the spotlight. He was a hit from day one and was surrounded by inquisitive students asking where he was from, what his major was and so on. After a while the excitement died down and they carried on from building to building for little tidbits of what their educational careers would be like. It was there he saw her, attended to by some other students trying to keep her calm. She looked like she was in pain, in a struggle of some sort.

"Excuse me," he asked a girl helping the blonde girl. "Do you need a hand? I'm a medic." He said nervously. Truth be told he was just starting out and had just gotten his certification. It was a step up from being just a first responder but it was still a big step for him.

"No thank you. We can handle this. She'll be fine in a while."

"Oh okay." Anton said. He sighed a little and moved on to the class room. Their professor for the day was apparently running late and the minutes seemed like hours with nothing to do. He mumbled a bit about not being able to help that girl but guessed it was for the best as he was nervous. Then she appeared with her arm around her friend for support. They walked in and sat in his row, right next to him. He sat quietly trying not to draw any attention to himself and thought it best to just let things be, when she dropped her book.

She slowly tried to reach it but she seemed to be tired and in some pain. Against the nagging voice in his head to not get involved he thrust his hand down and snatched up her book and brought it up to her hand. He quickly nodded and stared forward hoping that would be it.

"T-Thank you," she started rather weakly.

"No problem. It's just a book after all." He said quickly.

"No. For offering to help when no one else did. Thank you." She said.

Damn it what do I say? He thought to himself. He decided a simple 'no problem' would be best but when he turned and met her eyes, he forgot everything. Those eyes. Those eyes that could speak what she couldn't say. She was grateful, happy, and touched by a stranger's kindness. He couldn't help it. For the first time on his own he was actually useful to someone.

"It's nothing really. It's just that I'm a medic and I thought I could help out there but I uh, your friend had things under control."

"Oh hey he's a medic! Let's just hang out with him!" She said. "I think he can help out next time!"

"Oh. I wouldn't want to be a bother…"

"It would be my pleasure and an honor to help miss." He said. From there on in he was inseparable from her and her friend.

That was the day I stopped trying to find a reason to go on, Anton thought to himself behind the stairs. I finally found some one I could be useful to. He looked up at his surroundings on the third floor and saw that it was only Jessie and himself but he couldn't see her.

"Jessie?" He stood from his hiding spot and searched around. He found her leaning heavily against a concrete pillar breathing rapidly.

"Oh shit. Come over here. Let me help you over to the couch and then we wait it out okay?" He said lifting her up and walking her over to the sofas on the third floor. He sat her down and let her use his lap as a rest as she entered another fight in her mind.

I hope she makes it out, Anton thought, I don't want to be useless again. As she fought her own battle he kept his own silent vigil over her and kept people away. For all they knew she was sleeping. And he intended to keep them thinking that way.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: The Arbiter

Emma sat in her chair awaiting another call from Captain Gate in the lounge sipping a cup of coffee that was far too bitter for her. She looked around at the spherical room nested deep within the living section of the Gaia. She noticed a wall map display monitor very near where she sat and slid herself over to look at it. The entire ship's shape reminded her of the large beetles she used to run from back home. The map blinked and showed a cross section of the entire ship, thin slices showing each of the many rooms of the space station before stopping on a slice that showed the lounge she was now in.

"I remember when you landed in the hanger bay upside down and tried to play it off like you were trying to teach your kids about direction in space!"

Emma turned around to see who the shrill voice of laughter belonged to, only to see Lydia Libra with a beer in her hand pointing and laughing at Burke who had a slight smile on his face. She was talking to everyone else that was in the audience of the Captain like old friends but she hadn't even met anyone on that ship until today.

"I don't remember that." Burke lied. He closed his eyes and leaned back on his chair while Lydia continued to spill every dirty little secret about his early career with the Organization.

"What was he doing when he crashed his ship?" Aaron asked getting into the story.

"It was nothing," Burke began.

"He was training some rookie pilots and tried to show off and ended up crashing like a trainee and the hanger even had to be shut down for a week!"

"I remember that. That week's worth of shutdowns gave me a nice long vacation." Amelia said.

"I remember Howard's face when Burke crawled out of the ship. It was hilarious!" Lydia said pointing at Howard.

"How the hell can you remember that? You were in space at the time!" Burke said.

"I wouldn't have been able to if I didn't have a friend put it on a video file for me." She said sweetly. She removed a small monitor from her pocket and played the video to Burke's crew. They watched as the fighter swooped into the hanger and landed on its back and Burke crawling out shouting, "that's why it's important to keep a sense of direction in space!"

"Man, that looked cool." Aaron said trying not to laugh.

"I had a malfunction with my ships steering and I had to make an emergency landing and…"

"Hey, Burke…" Amelia cooed, "I thought you didn't remember what happened?"

"Were you okay?" Melissa asked with a maternal concern, "Were you hurt during that crash?"

"Oh please, he was fine!" Lydia shouted nearly falling off her chair and almost spilling her beer, "In fact, if I remember right. He got drunk that night and…"

"And what?" Melissa asked.

"…And he apparently ran naked though the station with a bottle of whiskey." Aaron said holding the monitor. Burke streaked past and after a moment someone else, also naked, chased after him, "With a…Girl?" Aaron pressed his finger to the movie slider bar and dragged it back to replay the scene as the crowd focused their attention on he unknown female that chased after Burke.

"There hit play!" Amelia said. They began watching the video again and watched Burke race though the hospital ward with a bottle in hand drinking along the way.

"I guess it was a cold night eh Burke?"

"Very cold. It's space you know." He said ignoring the monitor but watching Lydia.

"There she is! Quick pause it and zoom in!" Amelia said.

"Okay hang on. It takes a minute to enhance the image…What the hell?" Aaron said.

"Is that…?" Melissa asked clapping her hands over her open mouth in shock.

"Lydia?" Amelia said slowly recognizing her face.

The group slowly turned away from the monitor and focused their attention on Lydia who was sipping her beer and blushing furiously with her face turned away.

"This is why I don't mind her blabbing about me." Burke said standing up and wrapping an affectionate arm around Lydia, "Every story usually involves her doing something stupid too." They laughed a little before hearing a familiar voice begin to rant.

"I guess professionalism isn't something that's taught around here." The crowd turned to see Ms. Trish sipping away at her own coffee. "It seems that every person of authority onboard this vessel has a veritable degree in shenanigans and tomfoolery."

"Hey who the hell…" Amelia began but she was cut off by the Lydia's slender hand.

"Let the bitch finish." Lydia said. She motioned wither her hand for her to continue and sat down with her beer beside Burke and the rest.

"Well that there," Emma continued folding her legs like a posh cat, "That just show's how she has no respect for anyone in the organization with any kind of authority or any manners as lady…"

"Stop!" Lydia said looking down at the floor, "Stop right there." Lydia stood up and wandered over to her table in a slight stumble and in a very unladylike gesture bend over to speak with her privately and quietly. "I may not be a lady in your mind but to me I am the embodiment of what makes a true _woman_. I won't sit like a spoiled cat on someone's lap waiting to purr and I won't apologize for my own actions and finally I won't take any advice from a woman who is nothing more than a glorified telephone."

Emma simply stared at her with a fury that couldn't be explained. Did she call me a glorified telephone? Trish thought trying to work the insults through her head. Lydia winked, stood straight and happily walked back to her group, swaying her gorgeous hips to add salt to Emma's wounds.

"You think your better than me?" Emma yelled.

"I don't think doll, I know." She said with a smile that spoke more than either of them could. Her lips smiled, 'it's true', but her eyes said, 'and you know it'. Emma had met the end of her patience and she leapt from her chair and ran at Lydia with her nails poised like claws.

"Lydia! Look out!" Burke yelled.

Emma leapt at her like an angry house cat and Lydia only smiled. She spun around and ducked low into Emma, driving her elbow deep into her abdomen. Emma gasped as the air forced its way out of her lungs. Lydia stood and thrust her fist onto Emma's chin and forced her a few inches into the air before slamming her other palm into her chest. She flew a few feet into the tables and chairs of the lounge before rolling to a stop. Lydia casually walked over to Emma who lay coughing and gasping for air and spoke, "I may not be as 'lady like' as you might want but I can guarantee that I get more out of my life than you ever have." Lydia cracked her knuckles and walked back to her group.

Emma watched as Lydia sassily walked away in a seductive manner once more and was infuriated by everything that Lydia was that Emma herself wasn't. Lydia was beautiful, charming, and had a wonderful air about her that showed in her personality that she was so free and open to everyone else with. To others Emma was beautiful. She was once a front runner for her state beauty pageant circuit but pursued a degree in communications at what used to be an upstanding college. She had looks, she had talent and brains and she was from a wealthy oil family. What the fuck does this bitch have that makes her so much better than me? Emma thought as Lydia began slapping hands with her group.

Emma clutched her stomach and curled up trying to catch her breath when the intercom called her name. "Emma Trish to the Captain's office, Emma Trish to the Captain's office."

She slowly forced herself up and stumbled to the elevator and made her way up to the Captain's office. She stumbled in trying to fix herself up but the doors opened as she tried to straighten up her hair.

"Well I just received word from earth that their team is…Good god. What the hell happened to you?"

"That…that thing you call a pilot did this to me!" Emma cried trying to take off a broken heel from her shoe.

"Burke?" Captain Gate asked, "What in the hell possessed him to do this?"

"Not Burke!" she said. "Captain Libra! That whore!"

"Oh. Ha well it looks like her work. Now on to business, that transmission reported the location of the team before they were killed and now they want our help."

"Aren't you going to do anything about this?" Emma said.

"Good god no. She's not under my command anymore. She can leave when her ship is repaired to the Hades. Just received the wire, here, have a look." He said handing her a piece of paper. "Now according to the egg heads aboard the Hades the crystal exudes a certain energy signature and it need a form of raw energy in order to work. Reports of power surges have been reported but pulling power from a plug won't work so it can't be used without a proper source of energy. What they plan to steal is unknown so…Aren't you going to write any of this down?"

"I…just go the living crap kicked out of me and you want me do take a message?" Emma yelled in an angry fit.

"Hmm. I guess you can't really perform in your current condition. I'll tell you what, head down to sickbay and get some treatment and I'll just phone it in. How's that?"

Emma only screamed on her way out. She slammed her dainty fist on the elevator controls, only to sprain her wrist before she began her decent. The elevator apparently misunderstood her pounding and dropped her off at the lounge again instead of the sickbay a few floors below. She quickly pressed the correct button and waited for the elevator to go down to her floor when the impossible happened just as the doors were closing. A slender hand slid in between the doors and they stopped, and slowly began to open again. Lydia slid in and waited patiently as the doors closed and she pressed the last button on the panel.

"Going down." The elevator voice chimed.

Emma stood silently staring at Lydia's head for some time before Lydia spoke to her.

"Are you that fascinated with my hair or are you thinking about hitting me there?" she said. As she raised her hand to sleep her hair behind her ear, she saw Emma flinch and loose her balance. She fell hard against the metal walls of the elevator and pressed her hands over her hurting head. She opened her eyes slowly and saw an unbelievable sight, Lydia's outstreached hand.

"Just take it," She said. Emma gingerly reached out before asking, "Why? You just hurt me no more than ten minutes ago. Why help me now?"

"Just because I laid a smack down on your ass doesn't mean I hate you. It was just a reaction to being attacked like that. You know. Gut instinct and such." She said with a slight smile in the corner of her mouth, "Just don't look gift horses in the mouth."

She was surrounded. To her left about thirty of them, the right another forty or more. As she took a quick glance over her shoulder behind her she saw the fortress she once took refuge in before the battle. Finally, about a hundred or more of them amassed an army before her. An army made of dark shadows with only the slightest hints of humanity in their glowing forms. They were mingled in like so many horrible bits of colored candy in a bowl she had to escape from in this barren, lifeless landscape in her own mind. Motion just under her line of sight caught her attention for a moment as she looked down at the withering corpse of a shadow surrounded by its aura. The greenish hue began to fade as the large gash she tore across its chest began to release its spiritual energy like the blood of men on ancient battle fields. The body finished twitching and faded into the hard earth beneath her feet.

A purple hued creature walked its way onto a small rock point above the heads of the other creatures and roared like a dull baritone. The others began to stare at her with their missing eyes and almost seemed to smile with their faceless expressions as they charged toward her in mass. She simply closed her eyes and focused on her next move. One hand poised in front of her eyes and one arm behind her the purple creature seemed to wonder what she would do now.

She snapped her eyes open and with a twirl began her delicate dance of carnage and slaughter. Her pole-blade swept though the closing ranks like the wings of birds though the air. She gripped her blade and swung again and again in great arcing circles like a terrible tornado. The blade slashed though dozens of bodies before tearing a circle in the ground and coming to rest on her spread arms as she finished in a martial pose, awaiting the next onslaught to begin. The bodies began to slump and fall where they were slashed and dwindled into the dust. The creature roared again and their dance continued. She slashed and hacked her blade like a well rehearsed dancer though the crowds until she fought her way to the purple hued commander. A graceful leap and a downward hack proved too much for the commander as he fell on either side of his rock and faded into the dirt. She smiled as the fear began to spread in the enemy ranks.

Their colors began to fade into others as they began their slow withdrawal away from her deadly blade. She chased after them like a wild eyed stalker as she cut them down as they ran. No where was safe, there was no hiding spot her blade couldn't pierce and one by one they all fell. Now breathing hard and standing alone on her fortress of earthen brick she looked to the red, cloud covered sky and smiled. Light began to pour though an she slowly ascended into the heavens. Waiting for the time when she would have to fight again. Surrounded by glittering light she shielded her eyes and heard a faint voice.

Her eyes slowly began to flutter open and sunlight blinded her for a moment before she could focus again. She saw a faint outline of a face that seemed familiar somehow but she couldn't place it yet. She knew the glasses, the hairless chin, long hair and brown eyes filled with warmth and relief. She finally heard his voice and understood.

"Hi kiddo." He said, "Welcome back to the land of the living." She sighed heavily as she slowly began to understand what had happened.

"I did it again didn't I?" she said.

"Why do you always say that?" Anton said, "You know as well as I do that you have no control over this. It's just something that you have to take in stride." She rubbed her eyes and winced as she moved her tired body. "You ready to try and sit up?"

Jessie nodded and slowly sat up on the sofa and looked around.

"No one saw. It's just you and me. Or at least just you, I'll be back." Anton said. He stood leaving his book bag behind and disappeared down the stairs. She sat practicing the calming exercises that he showed her. He always seemed to be fussing over her health like she did his grades. She could feel her head beginning to throb from her recent episode in her own head and tried to concentrate on her breathing.

1…2…3…exhale, she thought, inhale deep and 1…2…3…exhale…my head still hurts…

"Here." She was startled by a soda bottle suddenly appearing before her eyes in some ones hands. "You know these get heavy after a while right?" Anton was there holding a soda with an out stretched arm for her.

"Oh. You didn't have to do that." She said. "Besides I'm…"  
"If you finish that sentence with 'on a diet' I'm gonna ram a funnel down your throat and pump you full of bacon grease. Just drink the soda. It'll get your head straight and at least keep you going long enough to make you look okay."

"Alright," She said conceding her defeat. She felt kind of like a child as he watched her open her pop bottle and drink little sips at a time. The soda's bubbles burned her tongue as she drank. She did like soda but wasn't an avid fan of it as it carried more than the necessary calories than a simple tea or even a bottle of vitamin water. Anton on the other hand stood beside her, chugging a bottle of mountain dew like it was going to expire in a few seconds. But in the end she found it easier to just agree with him and his over protectiveness that to try and resist but that didn't mean she had to like it or make it smoother than it had to be.

She finished her soda as best as she could and was already planning to extend her daily run to compensate when her dizziness faded away very suddenly.

"Do I look pale?"  
"Like now or before?" He asked, "It's kinda hard to say," He said looking at her face. She was already pale as it was being of close Irish decent and very seldom being outside with her classes and work during the day. With that her shimmering blonde hair brightened up her complexion in light.

"Seriously!" she said, "How do I look?"

"Like I won, fix your hair a bit and you'll be fine. Let's go before they start to think I'm actually into you in secret or something." He said.

"Yeah, that's going to happen." She said at his joke. He helped her down the stairs with her hand over his shoulders for support and her book bag slung over his arm.

"I can walk with my bag you know."

"When you can walk without looking like a weeble-wobble then you can walk on your own. Your body still needs time to recover." He said glancing at her legs as she walked. Though they were under her control they still shook with exhaustion from her mental struggle as they slowly came to the bottom of the stairs.

They slowly walked to the recreation room and he carefully peeked into to see who was there. As usual it was just Yoshi and Dustin playing games on the huge TV while others watched from behind the couch. The others hadn't noticed them yet and were well transfixed on their game until they passed the screen. They saw Jessie being assisted to a chair by Anton. They paused the game and called out, "Hey guys. What the hell happened?"

She didn't know what to say, "Uh…Er…"She began trying to think of something to say.

"She fell trying to jump over the couches upstairs and banged her knee up pretty good." She looked at Anton in a sort of surprise and amazement for a moment. He even smiled as he told them a lie. "Right, Kiddo?" He said.

She didn't understand, every day he seemed to have a new story from his runs in the fire station where he volunteered but he didn't say a word about what just happened a few moments ago.

"I didn't hit my…Ouch!" She yelled as her own book bag came crashing down on her left knee from Anton's shoulder.

"Oops, My bad, kiddo." He said turning to her and giving her a look.

"Why was she trying to jump over a couch?" Yoshi asked trying to imagine her running after Anton and leaping over the sofas like an Olympic runner.

"Well," she started again trying to tell them what happened but Anton quickly turned around and stood between her and Yoshi. His hands crossed behind his back and he struck her knee again with his almost empty soda bottle to keep her quiet while he answered.

"She was chasing me and I jumped over the couch."

"Bullshit!" Dustin said smiling, "You can't jump over the couch!"

"Wait a minute," Yoshi said not believing Anton either, "Did you jump over in one shot or did you like bunny hop over the sofa from the cushion?"

"No I just jumped over the couch." Anton said with a slight smile. I might have to prove this lie, Anton thought to himself, Crap! I'm in a corner now.

"What you think you're a lancer now or something? How can you, and no offense man," Dustin said.

"None taken," Anton said waving away his comment.

"Well you're kinda…short…I mean…Well. Look at basket ball players man they can jump like three feet and they're huge man!"

"I can do it." Anton said.

Yoshi simply stared a him and then leaned to look over at Jessie's face. She had the same expression of disbelief that they did. "Okay, Prove it." Yoshi said, "I wanna see you jump."

"Yeah!" Dustin said. Anton peeked over his shoulder at Jessie and agreed. "Okay, but set the couch like this," he said making an imaginary line with his hand from himself to the TV, "That way I won't hurt the TV if I fall and land on my head or something."

"That would be awesome." Yoshi said. "A medic that breaks his own neck." He laughed a bit with Dustin as they moved the sofa and Anton prepared for his jump. Jessie only placed her hand on her head and whispered to herself, "This is going to hurt."

Dustin and Yoshi set down the sofa and stood to one side as Anton measured the distance and hight of the sofa in his mind. He was getting ready to run when he heard a faint beeping from Yoshi's watch.

"Your alarm is going off man." Anton said resuming his concentration.

"Oh yeah! Don't you gotta go to that anime club meeting thing?" Dustin said.

"It can wait." Yoshi said. "I can't let the opportunity to see pain happen pass me by if I get the chance to see it happen first hand."

"Good point." Dustin said, "Ready?" Jessie saw him start his run and shut her eyes and only imagined him catching the top edge of the sofa and tumbling head first into the floor or the arcade games. It could be funny though, she thought as the image of him slamming head first into the x-men vs. capcom machine and coins spilling out played out in her head. She giggled to herself, it's like the cartoons, when she heard Yoshi and Dustin shout out, "Holy crap! He did it!"


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6 – The Unwilling Leader

The reflection on the glass was as cold and uncaring but still held nothing compared to the air of the room. The taunting whispers and silent accusations sounded like a jumble of noise rather than an organized meeting of the ASU. On of only two anime groups on the campus it held the status of being the top of the two groups that cherished that title, even though it was usually the cause of most of the strife within the organization. The young short haired man continued to stare out the window unrelentingly with a heavy heart as he repeated the anime group's prestigious title in his head trying to discover some meaning in it. Matt contemplated the worth of that title as he stared at his reflection that seemed to care less than he did when he heard a loud voice ask for one of their number, Yoshi, who was no where to be found for some time. Matt looked through his reflection and saw a familiar yellow jacket and looked for the body that usually carried it.

"He's down stairs in the rec. room." He said to himself knowing that no one was really paying any attention to his words.

"You see him?" Matt glanced at the window's reflection to see who was speaking to him. He saw Mike's face in the window's glare as he stepped over to Matt's window to peek outside. "And just what is our little Asian friend up to this time that is making him late to the meeting?"

"It looks like he's watching some short kid jump over the couch in the recreation room." Matt said pointing to the scene downstairs.

"Oh. So that's what he's doing." Mike said watching Yoshi as the short kid began to line up another jump. "Think he'll make it?"

"He did once already." Matt said with little enthusiasm. "But you never know. He might just fall on his face."

"Well at least we'll get a small laugh out of it." Mike said. They watched as the short kid dashed forward and leapt over the couch once more and was met with clapping and cheers from his small audience.

"I didn't see that coming." Mike said. "Well it looks like Yoshi's coming up here and so I take my leave. See you again later, Matt." With his good by Mike left the filling room and left. Moments later Yoshi entered and took his usual seat and silently watched Matt stare out the window with a melancholy glare.

Yoshi couldn't help but wander what was going on with Matt and decided that rather than wait for the meeting to get underway he would see what was up.

"Hey what you looking at?"

"Nothing anymore. Saw that short kid jumping the sofa a little while ago. I thought he was going to land on his face." He said not turning away from the window.

"I thought so too but apparently he thinks he's a lancer or something. He's weird but he's okay." Yoshi said watching the short kid talking to a blonde girl downstairs before they ducked under the overhang to sit at their table. "So what's up? Why you so down?"

Matt took a deep breath and sighed heavily. He turned to Yoshi and stealthily pointed a finger at their group president who stood at the head table of their meeting room hanging a coat over his chair.

"This meeting is basically a bitch out session because of what happened at the cultural fair last week and it looks like I'm going to be on the menu."

"Ah. Yeah that sucks." Yoshi said tapping his feet together. He remembered that cultural fair and what went wrong. A careful combination of poor planning, poor execution and run of the mill dropping of the ball by a few people involved lead to the so-called top anime group of the University to have to beg the second, and only other group, for assistance. It worked out fine in the end but the feudalistic rule of the president saw it as a sign of weakness in the group that wouldn't be tolerated.

"So why do you think that their going to bitch you out?" Yoshi said. "I thought that you weren't event there?"

"Yeah I wasn't there but someone happens to think that I called Mike to rescue the other group."

"Who said that?" Yoshi asked.  
"Not sure but I can bet their going to be here to point fingers."

Yoshi nodded to himself with a smile, "I like this plan."

"Alright everyone lets get the meeting underway." The president said. Everyone slowly sat in their chairs as the meeting began, Matt taking a chair nearest to his window and sighed heavily wishing he could just skip this entire day. The president began by doing his usual duties, reading the minutes, going over the report of the treasurer for the group and reports of spending, Matt all the while flipping though the pages of his gamer magazine to an article reviewing the newest of the final fantasy games.

He had just finished reading about the newest online features that would become available soon he heard his name being called. He looked up and saw half of the room staring at him.

"Someone call me?" Matt asked. The president shifted herself in his seat and cleared his throat. "I guess if you paid attention you would understand the trouble your in but since you don't care enough about this group to pay attention I guess I'll just have to repeat myself."

Matt looked at his magazine, replaced the book marker, and slid the magazine back into his book bag. "Okay," He said, "Let's hear this bullshit."

Scattered gasps and some laughs arose from the mixed crowd as the division of the group became a little clearer to the president. "This is about your behavior concerning the cultural fair last week."

"Okay what about it?" Matt asked. Yoshi silently laughed to himself as he watched the on going battle between Matt and President Ramón reach it's peak.

"You know very well what we're talking about!" Ramón said showing a little frustration to his enemy. Ramón straightened himself up and cleared his throat, forcing back the pent up rage over his rival and his repeated attempts to usurp power from him.

"I really don't know what you're talking about but I could really care less about it since it wasn't one of my projects with the group." Matt said, "And since you put someone else in charge of the project that I was working on I really have no other reason to be here listening to you make an idiot of yourself. Sir."

"Who the hell do you think you are to talk to me like that!" Ramón yelled, "I am…"

"A dictator?" Matt said.

"I am the president of this group and…"

"That's impossible, Ramón, presidents are elected and you still haven't even had an official election to even control this group. Your fat ass just never left the chair!"

"That is not the point of this meeting," Ramón said.

"Or any other meeting for that matter." Matt shot back.

"This is about you disrespecting the group and insulting our integrity," Ramón said with a sense of justice in his voice.

I can't believe he actually believes the crap they say, Matt thought to himself, "The only insult in this group is the leadership of an individual that surpasses the stupidity of President Bush."

"This group is running fine without the constant interruptions from you! I am making a motion for your removal from this group but first all we want to know is why you called Mike from the other group to help us at the festival."

"I never went to that festival you jackass! I was in class at the time and I can prove that because I was making a video. Mike himself told the members manning the booth that he would offer his services because their own booth didn't even have power. And he even told this to you before the meeting you idiot." Matt said leaning back in his chair.

"That's a lie!" Ramón said looking at the other people in the room as the new information seemed to stir mixed feelings toward the president's rule.

"Hang on one second." Matt reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. He began pressing buttons and held the phone to his ear. "Hey, Mike. It's Matt. I'm gonna put you on speaker for a moment so everyone can hear you."

Ramón sank a little in his heart and in his chair as Matt pressed the speakerphone button on his phone. "Hey, Mike, You still there?"

"Yeah. What's up?" Mike asked over the phone.

"What's the deal with the festival. I keep getting question about this thing and I figured I would just ask you."

"Oh that. The ASU group was having some trouble with their booth so we decided to lend them a hand and it went well. No one complained that I know of."

"Did you let Ramón know that you helped out?"

"Well yes. I told him about it before your meeting was going to start."

"Alright," Matt said. "Thanks Mike."

"No problem Matt." Mike said. Matt hung up his cell and slipped it back in to his pocket. "So I guess Mike is a liar then." And with a smile he left the meeting room without another word. Matt turned into the recreation room and began what he called 'Smash Bros' stress relief. In the game's reflection he saw a familiar figure in a yellow coat watching him play. Yoshi came up to his side and watched the game before Matt vented enough stress and frustration to be able to talk. "I figured you would be in the meeting." He said.

"Nah. I think you caused a revolt because a bunch of people left a while after you did. I think more people are planning to leave the group now because of that festival stuff."

"Well it's not my fault if they finally see the light and see Ramón for the asshole that he is."

"I guess that would make you Jesus now huh?" Yoshi said slipping a controller plug into the console at their feet as they played their game on the big screen television.

"Ha ha. But I'm still short on some apostles here." Matt said selecting his characters for their player battle.

"Why not join up with Mike?" Yoshi said picking his characters. "Isn't he in the other group."

"I would like to but they don't get to do a lot around the school because most of them are preparing for graduation as it is and a smaller membership makes it difficult to do any sort of activities." Matt said, "That's about the only advantage that ASU has that lets it say it's the best group. Besides I have the feeling that there are some people in Mike's group that might not want me there because I might start some kind of trouble and I don't want that for Mike."

"I guess." Yoshi said, "Aw crap. You killed link!"

"Something'll come up." Matt said.

"Hey Yoshi," A voice said, "You losing yet?" Matt turned to see the short and stout kid with long hair in a tail standing beside Yoshi watching the game.

"Oh yeah, this is Anton. He's a new guy and he likes anime."

"Cool. Which ones have you seen?" Matt asked.

Anton thought about it for a moment before deciding to answer, "Well to be honest the most I've watched is pokemon, Digimon and some dragon ball but I stop watching after they cut off the kid's tail."

"Wow." Yoshi said, "Really?"

"Yeah," Anton said, "The story lines were too complex to follow."

"Ha!" Matt said, "Don't worry boy. I'll school ya." He said sending Yoshi's character sailing into the background for the win.

"Sure you want to do that? I've been told I can be pretty annoying sometimes when I get excited." Anton said.

"I think I can handle it." Matt said. "Wanna try?" He said offering his control to the new kid.

"Na." Anton said digging into his bag and removing a small Tupperware container. "Lunch time!" Anton stepped around the couch and sat on the floor in front of them on the floor to watch the game continue.

"What ya got there?" Matt asked.

"Ramen." He replied rubbing two chopsticks together.

"Wait. You eat ramen and use chopsticks?" Matt asked.

"Yeah. Why? Is that too weird?" Anton asked slurping some noodles.

"No. Not at all." He said smiling at this new find before him. This could be an interesting mind to develop, he thought to himself.

Anton sat slurping his noodles by himself watching the game for a while when he heard a voice behind him.

"I figured you would only use him," said a rather tall and round student with blonde hair. He pointed at the screen and nudged his way onto the couch with out so much as an invitation.

"What's wrong with him?" Anton asked. "It looks like Matt's using him alright."

"You must be a noob then 'cause only a newbie would ask that." The student said. Matt said nothing and Yoshi took it upon himself to handle the introductions.

"Uh, Ramón this is Anton. He's new here and is interested in anime. I think he might be a new member for our group."

"Ha. I guess we could use more gophers in the group." Ramón joked.

"Why, can't find enough people to kiss your ass?" Anton shot, "Or is there no one else with that kind of time?"

"What?" Ramón said, "What did you say?"

Anton looked over to Matt who was having a hard time playing and trying desperately not to laugh out loud. "I think I'll take you up on that game now." Anton said taking the control from Matt's shaking hands as he left his seat. Anton took Matt's place and began to play.

"Sorry Yoshi but I've never really played this before so I won't be much of a challenge for you." Anton said, "I'll just try not to die to quickly."

"Just pick someone newbie." Ramón said.

"Hey easy there we're not in a lunch line." Anton said choosing his character. The match started and within moments Anton had miraculously lost all of his lives and patiently sat on the sofa with the control on his lap waiting for the match to end. With a surprise attack on a vulnerable foe Yoshi took the last victory.

"HA!" Ramón yelled at Anton. "I stomped your noob ass!"

"Yeah it takes a real man to celebrate a victory over a new player." Anton said, "I hope the president of your group has a little more sensibility and brains to know when he has an actual victory and not an attention seeking jerkoff like this guy." Ramón began to turn several shades of red beside Anton as he faced away talking to Yoshi.

Yoshi nervously smiled and said, "He is our president." From a table a little distance away they heard a tremendous burst of laughter as Matt's lungs could not hold out any longer.

"That's it!" Ramón said. "Your going to get it now!" He moved from his place on the couch and poised his rear over Anton and sat hard with all his immense weight in gravity's powerful hands.

"Anthony!" A shrill voice yelled.

"So why the hell are we in here again?" Burke asked the Captain Gate.

"Well I thought to myself while I was in my office, 'I haven't seen that sonofabitch Burke complain about something in about two of the most peaceful hours of my existence,' and decided the only course of action was to bring your whiny ass back up here and listen to your incessant bitching." Gate said with a smile, "Satisfied?"

"No."

"Good. Any other answer and I would have shot you as an imposter." Gate said showing the crowd an old style revolver he kept hidden in his desk. "I called this meeting because as it now stands we have no fucking clue where the damn crystal thing landed and that is making the high command wet them selves like women did when Elvis thrust his hips."

"Well that would be my department," Emma said, "As the Earth liaison it's my duty to know these thing but why these pilots are here I don't know. They don't need any of this information."

"Unless you want to another ass kicking, Ms. Trish, I suggest you shut your trap and pay attention." Gate said. Emma made a face and remained quiet to the satisfaction of Amelia. "Now then this is the problem according to high command. According to Nicoli on the Hades the plan was to destroy the crystal but it seems that has now taken a turn for the worse and the whole plan looks like shit. So we anticipate a revisal of their plan and best case scenario, they try to launch the crystal from earth into the sun or destroy it on earth. Since no forces exist to destroy the crystal completely without using the entire nuclear arsenal of every damned country on the globe the sun seems the best option. Unfortunately this isn't very likely because if they do we'll know and intercept."

"So they plan to hide it or what?" Amelia said.

"'Or what,' Exactly. The high command is worried that they are going to turn this technology against us. They are thought to possess the know-how as to use the crystal's mysterious power, what ever the hell that is, but their beliefs restrict them from doing so. Something about only god being able to posses the power of creation or some shit like that so that means that some random asshole down on that blue marble I call home is going to hit the lottery and create havoc and destruction the likes of which Burke can't even match with a bottle of bourbon."

"Hey!" Burke said.

"Wow that's a lot of havoc." Amelia said.

Emma politely raised her hand and asked, "Why are we sending down a bunch of pilots to escort scientists. It seems that trained soldiers would be better than this rabble."

"Wow. You're really heading for an ass kicking there sweet heart. I just hope it makes it onto the internet. What's the name of that website? You… Something or other but this sorry ass excuse of a unit has some of the finest backgrounds in counter espionage, surveillance, and protection that we have available and sober."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Captain," Amelia said, "What's our actual role in this operation? We gotta kill anyone?"

"You're going down there with your teams to escort some researchers who specialize in finding this damn thing and you're going to baby sit them until they find the crystal. If it's used then your mission will be to find the best available way to stop this crisis with what we have available should it be necessary."

"Yeah. What do you mean by that?" Burke asked. "How are we going to use anything on Earth. They barely have microwaves for god sake!"

"I'll expect you to adapt and overcome. There's been some recent advancement in technology and you will be allowed your field gear so don't fucking panic too much." Gates responded.

"Well what the hell are a bunch of military people going to do if they hand this thing to a mental patient?" Amelia asked.

"Find a god damned psychologist to help. Find a field expert or the closest damn thing to one. I can't solve every fucking problem. That's why I have you people. Now get to the shuttle, you have the coordinates and the searching team will join you at a later time. Till then just make sure everything is safe for them to proceed."

The group just looked at each other and began to leave the office when Gates called Burke back in at the last moment.

"Burke," Gates called, "I have one more thing for you. I didn't mention this during the meeting because I didn't want to cause a panic but I have to warn someone."

"What is it, sir?"

"We have reason to believe that Shade is working on this one."

"Shade? Is that why they lost contact with the teams sent for recovery?"

"We believe so." Gate said, "It's his same M.O. No survivors and no evidence. Watch yourselves down there. I don't want caskets sent back."

"Yes, sir," Burke said before leaving. As he descended down the elevator he thought about his mission and the dangers that would await them down on Earth. They would have to blend into the society of Earth and their technology though it is far below what they were already accustomed to in space. He took a deep breath and exited the elevator. He went and packed his luggage for the trip and after they had all met down in the shuttle bay the departed at once for Earth and the unknown.

Jessie's shrill yell seemed like decades ago as Ramón hovered over Anton. Time seemed to stand still for every observer watching the spectacle. No trace of Anton could be seen beneath Ramón's comparatively massive body. Yoshi smiled to himself as he saw events unfold. He watched as Ramón threw all his weight onto the seemingly small figure that formerly known as Anton, at least would have been if Anton had not slumped into his seat and thrust his knees up toward his chest and deep into Ramón's backside. He could also see small beads of sweat working their way down Anton's brow as he forced every ounce of strength he could into his knees.

This fucker is heavy, Anton thought to himself assessing his situation. If he stays here for much longer my legs are gonna give out, pressing his legs deeper he gritted his teeth and smiled, but I'm not gonna give up yet. Not to him!

They remained motionless like two ancient warriors locked in their final throws as the loser grappled with pain and humiliation. Ramón groaned softly as he struggled to keep his weight off of his attempted victim's knees and slowly teetered forward. Anton dropped his knees and Ramón stumbled forward holding his aching rear as he tried to play his failure of as his intended act.

"I knew he was going to do that!" he said convincing no one, "That's why I didn't do it for real!"

"Yeah that's why I sank about a fucking foot into the damn couch. Gravity had nothing to do with it right Yoshi?" Yoshi did nothing but smile to himself again as Anton sprang up from the sofa.

"Oh my god!" Jessie said rushing over, "Are you alright? Did he hurt you?" She said checking him like a worried mother.

"Yeah," He said pushing her away, "I think I'm fine. Kinda standing ya know."

Jessie continued to check over Anton as he tried to run away from her smothering while Matt moved closer to Yoshi and whispered, "Who is he?"

"A new guy, He's cool." Yoshi said. They watched as Anton and Jessie continued to fight for a while, even as she yanked his pony tail from behind to keep him in one place before she began leaning on the sofa.

"Looks like she tired herself out," Matt said.

"She looks dizzy," Yoshi agreed and watched as Anton helped her out of the recreation room and into an elevator were they disappeared.

They resumed their video gaming as Ramón limped away to his class, all the while being observed by a silent man in a blown coat with large sunglasses. He stood silently drinking his beer contemplating his next move. He took another draught from his bottle, finishing it off and disposing it in the nearest trashcan before leaving the building.

The sun felt good on his tired body as he thought about his day. Up at dawn for prayer, breakfast and a quick ten mile jog up hill to his destination, the multiple murders of unimportant scientists digging around for a small clear crystal, then another quick prayer before his lunch of a burger and beer. He breathed a contented sigh as he held the crystal to the light and marveled a little at the simplistic intricacy of the tiny stone. He almost pitied the fact that it would have to be destroyed and slipped the crystal back into his pocket.

The road home was a long but pleasant walk down the city streets and past the oblivious sinners along the way. The elderly couple lying about their disabilities to get social security, the local drug pusher dealing to children because he was thrown out of every other neighborhood by other drug runners, and his personal favorite was the priest that was seeing the mothers of his catholic school group on the side while many of their husbands were having their own sordid affairs. They were all sinners and they would eventually have to pay.

The man in the coat reached his apartment and slowly made his way to his room and took off his coat and fished out the crystal. He placed it gently on his dresser and dug around in his drawers for a metal plate and a small sledge hammer. He lay the plate on his dresser and the crystal on it and raised the hammer.

It really was a pity. All that useful power gone to waste, but orders are orders. Suddenly, as if God himself cared to listen to his insignificant thoughts and prayers, his phone began to chime.

He lay down his weapon and glanced at the crystal before answering his cellular phone.

"Hello." He listened to a quiet voice on the other end speak to him, his own personal angel of sorts telling him the will of the almighty. He nodded, though the voice on the other end could not hear him and simply said, "Understood." He hung up the phone, placed it on a charging dock and sat on his bed. Sighing he opened up his bottom drawer to reveal his safe box. He pressed his favorite scripture into the number pad and it popped open. He gingerly placed the crystal into the soft velvet lined box and gently closed the lid before sliding the drawer back into place. He said his prayers and lay himself down for the night. Tomorrow the work of God would begin.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: The Demon Head

The snarling teeth of the purple demon dripped with blood of its fresh kill. The tiny yellow creature hadn't stood a chance against its massive claws and gleaming fangs. The demon slowly lumbered back to its side of the battlefield, leaving behind the remains of the yellow carcass to fester and spoil before they dissolved into the very ground and the grave. A small fairy stood alone with its tiny ruby staff clasped in its tiny hands. The demon stared it down with hungry eyes as it stepped into its square on the field and moved no more. She breathed a small sigh of relief knowing that for now the demon was done with its slaughter and waited for the sun to break through the clouds and shine on her cold wings.

Finally, the blazing light broke through like a sign from the heavens and illuminated her side of the field. She took her wand and prayed softly to her self and waited. The ground rumbled and cracked as a piercing ray broke though the graveyard and the angry corpse of the yellow creature broke though the ground and clawed its way back onto the field. It smiled with its mangled face before shattering like a window into a thousand pieces of light. The pieces froze in the air as the fairy continued to pray and spun like tops before flying together again.

The pieces struck each other and fused together forming an arm here, a finger there, a helmet and sword until a glimmering glass knight stood like a molten statue and gradually faded into its true form. The knight drew his sword high and raised his shield and drew his first breath. The tiny fairy was beaming with joy at the valiant knight as he charged down the battle field toward the terrible demon. His shield in front and sword poised to strike at its heart he thrust his sword true. The demon smiled.

The knight's eyes grew wide within his helm as his sword was frozen on the spot, a few precious hairs from their mark. Magical energy swirled around the knight locking him into place as the demon chuckled to itself. The little fairy sank and fell to her knees as the knight stood frozen and helpless. The magic swirled itself into a ball and exploded, sending the knight flying backward to his square. He slammed into the field holding the creatures to their warring and struggled to climb to his feet to attack again. He charged forward only to be thrust back again by the blue magic. He roared as he struggled to stand again but the magic remained. It swirled and threw him back again and again till he saw a terrible sight. The demon prayed.

Glittering light began to rain down upon their field and gathered like a golden mist in the air slowly forming long shapes in the air. The knight saw the blue energy fade away and he charged forward once more. To his horror the golden light moved far more swiftly than him or his blade and soon he was trapped behind dozens of golden blades. The knight and fairy stared helplessly as they were quickly trapped behind the glittering swords. The light faded from their side of the field and the moon shined bright on the demon as he raised his open hand to them. His palm slowly vanished from their sight and was replaced with a glowing flame. The demon smiled as the fire leapt from his palm and engulfed the two creatures in searing flames.

His laughter roared through the empty battle ground as he walked past their ashen remains. He chucked to himself as he ripped the charred head of the fairy off its burnt corpse and crushed it like a child does to clumped earth. The demon walked past the former creatures as they faded into the ground and placed his hand on the field holding him in. He readied his fist and lightning began to swirl around it as he slammed it through the field's invisible wall. The magic shattered and was no more. The demon won.

"I hate that card" Oscar said as he rewrote his life points.

"I just got it." Hector said, "Just trying to see if it was worth hunting down." He discarded his magic card into his card graveyard and ended his turn with a motion of his hands. Oscar drew a card from his stock and examined his hand, carefully trying to restore his defenses.

"I summon this card in the face down defense position and I will also play this face down card." Oscar said. He ended his turn and watched as Hector drew his card and begin his onslaught.

"I will attack your face down card with my shadow demon." Hector said. Oscar smiled as he flipped over his card.

"Ha ha!" he said pointing to the special ability of his card, "This slime creature is immune to any attack as long as it's in a defensive position and your glowing swords keep it in defense position!"

"Okay then," He said realizing that his Demon's attack had been nullified and took two cards from his hand and placed them behind his demon.

"Now I will draw my card and I will summon another slime creature and using this card," He said flipping over the magic card behind his slime creatures, "I can split them into two more monsters."

"That's pretty neat." Hector said admiring his strategy but he knew that it would be in vain soon enough.

"And now I will sacrifice all of my monsters to make the super slime mold!" Oscar said. Hector smiled.

"I will activate my trap card," He said flipping over one card behind his demon. "This card does five hundred points of damage per monster on your field. That's about two thousand points off of your health right there," Hector said. He coolly flipped over his next card and continued "And with this card any monsters that go into the graveyard will take an extra five hundred points with them from their owner."

"I hate that card too." Oscar said ending his turn.

Hector drew another card and placed a face down card next to his demon. "I play the magic card dark hole." Oscar cursed under his breath as he scooped up his monsters and threw them into the graveyard and deducted another two thousand points from his life points. Hector again attacked him with his demon card deducting even more points and then flipped his face down monster over to reveal a tiny and pitifully weak insect card. He attacked Oscar with the weak little card and it was just enough to finish the game. Hector smiled and scooped up his cards and his victory pausing to admire his newest weapon in his arsenal. His victorious high was cut short however by a shrill scream that invaded his mind.

"Anthony!" The shrill voice cried. Hector turned to the group gathered at the big screen television to see a large fat man struggling to squish a smaller guy with a pony tail. Hector made his way to the crowd and found a hole to watch though the limbs and bodies that had gathered. He saw the fat man trying to squish the shorter man but apparently the shorter man had hammered his knees into the fat man's rear to painful effect. In the back of his mind he marveled a little at the shorter man's idea.

"What's going on?" Oscar asked following up behind Hector to see what was going on.

"That short guy. He just stopped the other fat guy in the weirdest way." Hector said. "It looks like he tried to sit on him but the shorter guy stopped his attack with one of his own. Like a counter attack sort of."

"Oh wow. That looks cool." Oscar said reorganizing his card deck and not paying any real attention.

"Yeah but I don't think he's going to make it. It looks like he's going to be crushed soon." Hector said. He watched for a little more as the fat man struggled to lift himself off of the short man's knees. He finally succeeded and stumbled about trying to play off his failure. The short man leapt to his feet appearing fine but something caught his eye.

A young blond girl rushed over to his side and began to fuss over him like a mother would a child. She intrigued him beyond any of the other things that were going on and he couldn't help but wonder why she was so concerned over him. His interest peaked even more as she began to chase him around the area before becoming extremely winded and then she was escorted out by the shorter man. They made their way upstairs via the elevator and were gone. He wondered what they were doing and why they needed such secrecy. What were they doing?

"Hey the other card players are waiting for us." Oscar said. Hector drifted back into the moment. It was time for his scheduled game against six other players and the side show was now over. The short guy and the blond girl were gone and the fat man was already limping out of sight. He turned and walked back to his table and set his cards to play glancing at some odd looking man in a brown coat with sunglasses drinking a beer. He returned his attention to his cards as they made ready to play.

"You are all going down!" He boasted shuffling his deck.

The shuttle bay was usually quiet during the night hours of the Gaia. There was a restriction on any space travel during this time because of a few scares back in the eighty's when one of their early model vessels was spotted by some night owl with a telescope and a camera.

He raised a great fuss in the media and showed the pictures to everyone willing to look. Luckily there were already measures in place in case this type of event happened. Agents disguised as experts or media figures made public denouncements toward the images and made comments like 'grainy figures' or 'meteorite fragments'. One went so far as to claim it was nothing but a freak fuel explosion from the propulsion systems of a satellite gone awry. The public decided that the experts made more sense than the guy who discovered the ship. He kept looking for proof while the public dismissed him as another closet geek with a space fascination. By then the agency had closed in and taken him up. Amazingly the closet geek was actually a former professor of astrophysics but lost tenure during the whole ordeal and was picked up.

After his initial interrogation and the investigation he was incorporated into the company. He now directed the schedules for shipping and transportation as well as advised tower control on the best times for training and movements to avoid another incident. Now the shuttle bay was full of people preparing vessels and running supplies like ants on a hill. Orders were being shouted in all directions from repair crews, ship loaders, and foremen giving directions to the organized chaos that reigned in the shuttle bay. Two black shuttle craft hung in the docking bays ready to launch at any moment. Tangled lines of electrical cable, fuel, oxidizers, purified air and power made their way into the holding tanks and batteries of the crafts. Their sleek black bodies gleamed in the artificial light of the docking bays. To Burke they looked like to birds of prey, waiting for their chance to strike out on their own for the first hunt.

"I see you like my work." A voice said behind him. Burke turned to see an extraordinarily thin man with glasses. "That's the new radar absorbing paint. It looks shiny but the paint molecules themselves can absorb massive amounts of energy from radar waves. Makes the radar think the waves are just passing into space and beyond."

"Not bad, Rodger. Not bad at all." Burke said admiring the ships.

"Yeah. Not bad for a former disgraced professor who saw twinkling lights eh?" He said. He smoothed out his thinning hair and sighed. "So how long till you guys make Earth fall? Can't be more than a couple of hours."

"I thought that astrophysics was your department?" Burke said. "Can't you figure that out?"

"Yeah," Rodger said, "I guess they just tell you to jump in and hang on."

"Amen."

"Okay since this is a daylight drop we can hide in the sun and if we do this right we can make planet fall with a slow gradual decent without leaving a flaming trail. It's slow but makes things easier for us."

"Won't that make us stand out like sore thumbs?" Burke asked.

"Yeah, but most people won't pay any mind to a simple jet liner coming in for a landing. Contacts on the ground should be able to hide your radar signatures if the paint should fail for any reason. But it won't."

"How can you be so sure it won't burn up?" Burke asked.

"Because," Rodger said, "Unless you fly into the sun itself the paint can handle the heat of re-entry if not more." Rodger smiled at his work and removed himself for coffee and a sweet pastry in staff lounge as Burke stared into the loading bay. As soon as the sun shined in they were ready to launch. He stared at the craft that he would soon be in for hours on end and began to let his mind wander. What kind of reception would they get from the brother hood? Could they use primitive technology to defend themselves? And who would they call if something went wrong?

Burke hated the thought of being stranded on earth without his usual weapons. He was used to advanced rounds and guns, laser cannons and plasma guns. He wanted to take his own ship down to Earth but every alien seeking freak would probably want to take him to some leader. Behind him he heard the faint sound of footsteps running toward him. He turned to see a young looking girl rushing toward him. She stopped moments from colliding with him as the metal grating caught the tip of her shoe causing her to stumble most of the way. She was out of breath but was trying to speak.

"Captain…"She gasped, "Need…Crystal…found."

"I know he wants the crystal found but we haven't even left yet. There are still some preparations to be made for the trip."

"NO!" She yelled, "Captain Gate! He wants…To see you! They found more…Than one sign…Of the crystal!"

"What!"

"Come with me!" She said before running off.

The cold dark emptiness of space was a sobering reminder of the time wasted in orbit aboard the Gaia. After all the years Gate spent struggling with silver spoon brats and trustee assholes that thought a few million dollars makes a man a man felt like a complete waste of time. The final culmination of his career was supposed to be him off of some foreign shore on a floating battle station, commanding a fleet of thousands of ships and men while sipping an exotic drink and telling lieutenants to go fuck themselves not floating in an empty vacuum paying the shipping clerk under the table for a measly ounce of whiskey. And worse yet, where would it end?

Gate sipped his hard bought whiskey and sighed thinking about those warm sands under his feet and the cool breezes on hot days that could have been. His mental vacation vanished as the elevator indicators lit up.

Burke and a breathless young woman stepped out of the elevator. "Ah Burke. I see you've met my assistant CC"

"Damn it!" She said between gasps. "I said…my name is…Camille… Not CC!" Gate shot her a warning glance and she quickly came to her senses, "Sir!"

"Children these days… They all need a swift kick in the ass." Gate said.

"I'm twenty six!"

"Now back to business." Gate said ignoring Camille completely. "Our satellite tracking has identified more than seventy separate signals ranging from a pebble to mount-fucking-Saint Hellens in size and a barely readable RAD to a nuclear explosion on our radiation detectors."

"Okay," Burke said. "So we get the Hades to send us some more equipment and scanning crews and we take the globe continent by continent."

"No." Gate said. "We send you and your crew to the first signal location and you wait."

"Wait for what?" Burke asked. "Some kind of fire breathing, bullet proof anomaly to show itself in a crowded populace with a giant cross painted on it?"

"I should have thought of that!" Gate said. Burke couldn't tell if he was joking or being serious. "No. The plan is to send you to Earth to acclimate for a period of time…"

"How long?" Burke asked.  
"…And when we find the right signal we send you after it."

"How long are we going to wait, Gate?" Burke said raising his voice.

"I should say about six months or longer."

"What?"

"Well if you let me finish," Gate said, "then you'll under stand what the fuck I'm trying to say. You and your team will wait for our instructions while we send small scanning crews around the globe to snuff out these ghost signals. When they find a possible signal we'll contact you to find it and get the job done."

"So why the fuck to we have to stay on Earth for six months?" Burke said.

"To acclimate," Gate smiled at Burke's confusion and explained, "Listen Burke. I read your file and I've overlooked the files of your crew and the Hades crew. I've added some figures together and decided that the initial plan to send you and your crew to Earth and retrieve the item would be detrimental to your mission, crew, and this station."

"How the fuck did you come up with that horse shit?" Burke asked sitting back in his chair.

"Well not a single one of you assholes has less than ten years on land. You have the worst record of the team. A full twenty years on this bucket and no research on developments on Earth."

"What would I need to know? They have crappy technology that never works and very primitive weaponry. Hell, the Hades is the only station to use machine guns because the plasma cartridges need a conversion kit that hasn't arrived yet. Might as well give me a rock and a sharp stick if I'm gonna be stuck on Earth for six months."

Gate stayed silent for a moment and reached into his desk. He pulled out a small wooden box and laid it on his desk. "Let me tell you a story."

"Do you have to?" Burke asked.

"If you listen you get a cookie and a deal that could keep you on the station."

"Shoot." Gate opened the box to him self and smiled at its contents. He took a glass from his desk and walked to his hidden bar behind his bookshelf and poured himself a glass of whiskey. "A long time ago, about sixty years ago, there was once a man who had the chance of a life time to advance to greatness but someone else's ideals made him a caretaker for an entire operation greater than anything he would have ever had. And sixty years later, when he wanted to retire as he was supposed to he wasn't allowed. So now he has to either blow up this hunk of junk or die just to get back to Earth."

"So why don't you lead the team," Burke asked.

"Because I'm too old, but if you want that cookie you'll need to shut the hell up for a moment. Now this man is at an impasse in his career and an offer has come across the table. If you pass this test," Gate said, "You will not only get to pick your replacement, but you will also begin training up here to be my replacement. Hell, for all I care you can be entombed in this fucking office; but if you fail, you'll go to Earth to acclimate and I'll have to wait for you to get back and we're both miserable."

Gate turned the box around and pushed it toward him. Burke looked into the box and saw two small plastic devices with soft rubber-like buttons and a primitive pixel screen. A slender hand reached for one of the devices and Gate continued. "These are called Cellular telephones, and the game is simple. It works in the same way as your com-link does in your ship but this is what they use on Earth. Use this device to contact Camille in that elevator and the command is yours and you stay here."

Burke stared at the phone as Camille stepped into the elevator and closed the door behind her. He pressed buttons at random trying to get it to work but he couldn't. As hard as he tried the screen stayed black. Gate cleared his throat and motioned for Burke to hand him the phone. He pressed the black button on the top edge of the phone and the screen glowed bright. "Strike one, phone has to be on genius."

"I knew that." Burke said taking back the phone and resuming his struggle. He slowly progressed though the menus and found the voice menu. _It must work like the communicators do_, Burke thought, _just say a name and it finds that person_. "Camille," he said into the phone and it began to ring. An old song began to play from nowhere in Gate's office and he removed a similar phone from his pocket. "Strike two." Gate said. "You have to program the phone to recognize a voice moniker you give it for the specific number." Burke began to fly though the menus and clicked his way through to address book and found a list of names. He clicked his way down to the C's and looked through the names. He found two listings for Camille with different last names beginning in the letter C. Burke's heart sank and he looked at Gate with despair.

"One last chance," Gate said. "GO AHEAD!" he yelled. Soon after Burke's phone began to dance in his hands and he fumbled it onto the desk where it clattered around. Gates burst into laughter and roared, "Well answer the damn thing!"

"God you are one sick Fuck!" Burke said storming out of the office and into the elevator as Camille came back into the room.

"Hey you didn't answer!" She said to him as he left. The doors closed and she asked, "what the hell did that have to do with him going to Earth anyway."

"Well if he could use this so called 'primitive' technology easily then he could easily teach it to another team leader and stay here to take up the task of running this place from me. But he needs to show that he can work on Earth and on this ship."

"Why? You haven't been off this ship in over fifty years." Camille asked.

"Because the shuttle technology is finally catching up slowly but surely, and after a few more years we can begin to interact with the Earth governments freely and with less hassle. That means he will have to work here and there and that demands he gets taken down a peg and uses lesser technology. That and he'll have no choice but to use what ever Earth technology he can find."

"So why a cell phone?" Camille asked.

"It's the most popular technology so far and it has some things with it. He never asked for the instructions and he never asked for your full name. I needed for him to be reminded that he can't always work alone. That kid saved him the other day and I don't want to lose leaders or heroes in a place where the medical technology still depends solely on the body's ability to heal unassisted." Gate said. "He has to work with a team."


End file.
